Adventures of Zootopia
by Chrisjeha
Summary: Six months after Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps solved the missing mammal case, Judy and Nick are fighting crime as police officers and partners. Everything seems perfect but with new friends and old enemies new stories are about to be told in Zootopia …
1. Chapter 1

**I Updated the chapter along with chapter 2-4 mostly formatting but a few dialogues changed if you want to reread it ;)**

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"That was so cool, right Nick? "Judy asked her Partner as they were walking out of the concert hall into the cool night. She, Nick and all their friends were personally invited to Gazelles concert for solving the missing mammal case and rescuing Zootopia. The popstar even thanked them personally again although it was almost six months ago that they tricked and caught bellwether and saved Zootopia.

Nick gave her a warm smile and replied "well I have to admit it wasn't that bad at all". The next thing he felt was the pain of a little grey paw punching his upper arm. "Ouch … ok ok it was cool" He added while rubbing his arm.

After a few minutes walking, it was time to part ways, but something inside Nick didn't want to be alone at his place again, which was quite abnormal because usually he preferred being alone than circled by mammals who either stereotyped him, pitied him because he was stereotyped by others, asked him if he would want to become a part of their own little businesses or were just dumb.

 _I have to do something, now_ he thought as the point where they would separate was only a few moments away and this feeling which told him to keep Judy around as long as possible got stronger.

"Ahhh … Anyway what do you want to do now cottontail?" Nick suddenly asked.

"What do you mean? I'll go home now, it's at least eleven if not later" Judy looked up at her partner with a puzzled expression on her face. Nick in return looked down at her with an amused expression and for a moment she thought she could see something else in his eyes, but it vanished before she could identify it.

"Ok, What?" She asked with an annoyed voice after staring at him for a few moments in complete silence. Without a warning his paw reached out and touched her forehead gently.

"Hmmm, that's odd, your temperature is normal, are you feeling ill carrots?" He asked, now suddenly sounding concerned. "

What? No not at all why?" she replied obviously confused by the sudden change of his behavior.

"why would you want to go home and do nothing on a Friday evening then, carrots?" He asked her now again a smile on his muzzle. The grey rabbit was completely perplexed, she wasn't the type of bunny who just went out to party and Nick should knew that by now. Besides she was already tired, the last week strained her way too much and she could really use a few hours of peaceful, deep sleep especially after this concert which had been nice, but also pretty loud and hectic.

"Did we ever really celebrate the solution of the missing mammal case fluff?" he suddenly asked. Judy thought about that for a few moments, sure they got their fair share of handshakes and compliments about their 'excellent police work' as the mayor called it.

She knew what Nick was trying to do and although she was tired, being this evening with him sounded way nicer than going home and do nothing. But she also could have a little fun messing with him before accepting the offer.

"What exactly do you want to celebrate Nick, the fact that I got a week of hospital food thanks to my leg, the completely destroyed subway wagon or the fact that bellwether nearly killed us both which was only prevented by your love of blueberries?" she asked with a what she hoped sounded like a stern voice. She had a really hard time trying not to burst into laughter as soon as she saw his smile fading while he tried to understand what was going on.

"Listen carrots I didn't mean it that way I … I …". He looked bewildered as Judy suddenly started to laugh and it took him a few moments to realize what happened.

"You're one evil bunny, you know that carrots?" He did his best to sound annoyed but he couldn't stop smiling at the laughing bunny.

"Thanks I try. But we _did_ celebrate the whole bellwether thing, multiple times to be exact". "Don't worry" she added with quick look at him "we have something else to celebrate".

"We have? And what would that be" Nick was confused. Normally he was the one who kept track of all the celebrateable events, he used even the tiniest occasion to going out with Judy and he was quite sure he didn't miss a thing.

"You" She simply said and pointed at his chest with one of her paws.

"Me?".

"yeah, you went to the police academy for the past half year, graduated as the first fox ever and as the best of your class only to get less money and an annoying bunny partner, caught a speeder on your first day, which was one of your friends and successfully survived your first week at the ZPD without getting too much trouble" the gray bunny explained.

"Now that's a shame don't you think carrots? What about we correct this mistake with a few drinks, I heard about a nice bar not far from here, wanna try it?" Nick had a one of his sly smiles on his face.

"Hmm … I don't know it's pretty late don't you think?" She asked with a frown.

"Oh come on carrots, give it a try it won't be bad and if you don't watch out you even might enjoy yourself" Nick said and gave her a wink. Judy wasn't sure she would enjoy going out to a bar and meet completely strangers, who were not only way bigger than her but they surely were drunken too, in the past six months as police officer she encountered a few drunken mammals and it was safe to say she wasn't looking forward meeting more of them. "If you promise me that I won't get trampled by a drunken rhino again, I'll try it" she finally gave in.

"Yeah sure" he said, quite confused by this strange request "wait, _again_? You actually got trampled by a drunken rhino in the past? You totally have to tell me this story". But Judy didn't want to come up with that a little embarrassing incident again so she just told him to save it for another time.

A few minutes later they reached their destination, a bar named _The Three Humped Camel_. From the outside it actually looked kinda boring, but the first thing Judy heard as they entered the grey painted building was laughter.

As soon as she took a look around she instantly felt like she was coming home after a long day. Judy didn't know what to expect when Nick told her to come along but she definitely didn't expect seeing animals doing nothing more than sitting there, talking and laughing which each other. There was no loud music, no giant dancefloor and not one animal who was completely drunk although there were a few who were definitely not sober anymore.

 _Maybe it's not gonna be that bad at all_ she thought as she noticed the amused look of Nick and realized she was standing there, mouth agape and staring.

"Ok … I admit, it's not looking _that_ bad" She finally managed to say.

"Oh come on carrots I know you like it" he answered "Anyway let's look if we can find an empty place …. Ah found one, come on fluff". With a smile he walked towards an empty table on the left side. As soon as Judy was sitting on one of the really comfortably and soft looking couches a weasel approached them,

"Hey Nick, nice to see you again buddy how is it going, still selling pawpsicles? ". He asked with a surprisingly cold voice and with a look to Judy he added "And who is your little companion over there?". The instant Judy looked over only to see Nicks uncomfortable expression, she knew something was wrong here.

"Jack?" Nick asked. His ears fell and his eyes grew wide

"Yeah buddy it's me, last time I saw you, you were telling the cops all about my little business, but thanks to you I had a few years in jail to think about what I did wrong and now look at me, I'm a waiter serving my ex-friend some drinks, so what do you want?" the maroon weasel named jack asked with a look which Judy believed was nothing more than pure hate.

"Listen, jack I didn't know he was a freaking cop he just asked me where he could find you and I told him that's all, I swear" a now quite uncomfortable Nick was trying to defend himself.

"Yeah sure you just told him where he could find me … and my 50 catnip plants", Judy flinched slightly as she heard that, because catnip was highly illegal to produce, sell or own, although the plant itself only was affecting felines, but it was also the main ingredient for most of the drugs that were sold in Zootopia.

She also remembered that at her time in police academy she heard about somebody who leaked the police the location of a catnip producer who had information about the biggest network of catnip dealers of Zootopia and the only thing he wanted in return was the promise that his name wouldn't appear anywhere in this case and a reward money of course.

"yeah you heard right bunny" Jack obviously took her flinch as a sign of shock. He turned his head to look at her "This worthless fox who I thought were my friend, betrayed me just like that and if you don't watch out he will do the same thing with you, isn't that right _fox_?"

He turned his head back to face Nick again, who now had enough time to hide again behind his mental wall he built whenever he didn't want anyone see what he was thinking. Suddenly and without any reason, Judy started to get really angry at this weasel. _Who does he think he is, trying that bad to ruin this fun evening for me!_

"Excuse me jack, it was I believe?" the weasel turned his head to look at her again.

"yeah, what?"

"I know you would like to chat with Nick a little longer but I'm really thirsty and tired so I would really appreciate it if you could bring us something to drink and leave us alone, please?" she tried to say as polite as possible

"And who do you think you are, trying to order me around _bunny_?" came the blunt answer.

 _There we go_ , she inwardly celebrated "Excuse me, where are my manners my name is Judy Hopps, or Officer Hopps if you like that more, nice to meet you" she answered with a warm smile.

For a long time, there were no reaction on Jack's face and Judy began to fear that he just was standing there for the rest of the night staring at her _We aren't done yet sweetheart_ she though.

"I don't think we will get something to drink in here in the near future, wanna try it somewhere else, _Officer_ Wilde?" Judy asked Nick in return was staring at her, mouth slightly agape. It have to be said that this was nothing compared to the now completely shocked look Jack gave her, before he slowly and with an horrified expression turned around to look at Nick.

"Y ... You … you are a cop now?".

Nick snapped out of his thoughts and gave Jack a smile too "well, what should I say, selling pawpsicles got a bit boring and at the time I looked for something new this officer showed up, got me almost killed a few times and now I'm a cop", his smile even widened as he saw the reaction on Jacks face who was slowly realizing the situation he was in. "And if you don't want me to add a few things to your personal file which the officers might have missed back then, you better make sure to make this a nice evening for both of us, ok?". With a horrified look, the weasel turned around and ran back to the door with the _Employees only_ sign on it.

As soon as the maroon weasel disappeared behind the door, Judy began to chuckle.

"Did you see his face?" but as she turned her head back to look at Nick she caught him starring at her again "What?" she asked joyfully.

"Oh, It's nothing I was just … surprised" he mumbled, more to himself than to her and for a moment Judy thought that his cheeks became a slightly brighter shade of red. But it was gone before she could really think about it.

"It's not like I can't have some fun now and then, especially when someone is giving one of my friends a hard time" she stated with a wink.

"Oww, I can't believe the great Officer cottontail finds time to help me with an evil weasel" he teased her with a cocky smirk.

"Sure, I can't just look away when an innocent animal gets threatened by an evil weasel and is unable to defend himself" she countered and now had the same smirk as Nick on her face.

"But I seriously never would've thought you were this nameless witness who helped the police back then" She stated and Nick's ears fell back on his head again.

"It wasn't a big deal, how comes you even know about it?".

"Are you kidding me Nick? Back in my time at the police academy they told us like a hundred times the story about this case where thanks to a nameless citizen the police was able to catch a criminal who then gave them a whole list of at least fifty names of catnip dealers and producers. With that the catnip has almost completely vanished and in the past two years there were not more than one or two cases including catnip, all thanks to you."

"That's odd. The only thing _we_ heard about at the academy was a certain bunny and how she was better than anybody else" Nick said with his usual sly smile which even widened as he saw a slightly reddish tint on the cheeks of his partner.

"I think you're exaggerating it" She mumbled.

" Nope, she even had a picture of you, to show us how badass you are" He smiled as he remembered the days back then and how proud he was as the drill sergeant showed them the picture of Judy.

He was disturbed in his daydream as a squirrel approached them and took their orders which was the blueberry sunrise for Nick and the tropic thunder for Judy.

"This polar Bear didn't even let the littlest chance to tell us your scores slip. Mind telling me how you were able to cross this stupid icewall in only 2.54 seconds" he continued after the squirrel left them to get their drinks. Suddenly Judy was smiling uncomfortably.

"Well, I just had to jump … on my comrades, which wasn't that difficult at all, but they obviously weren't really happy about that, especially McHorns brother ".

"Do you mean the rhino you knocked out with one blow at your last boxing match, fluff?". Judy's cheeks started to burn as she heard that and it became even worse as her partner suddenly started giggling after looking at her, but thanks to the squirrel who brought them their drinks she didn't had to answer this question, not because she was embarrassed or anything. But she wasn't the kind of mammal who was bragging with her victories, that match back then was just a lucky blow nothing more.

As she tried her drink a mix of flavors exploded in her mouth, there was orange and pineapple and even a hint of carrot mixed in there.

"Woah, this is delicious, right Nick?" She asked.

"I have to admit it's not bad, carrots" he tried his own drink.

Only a few minutes later Judy's glass was empty and she ordered a second one.

"Slow down, or you'll get drunk, you know there is actually a lot of alcohol in there don't you?" He tried to warn her but she just looked at him bewildered

"You really think I can't handle a few drinks? Come on Nick there isn't much in there I can't even taste the alcohol". After she finished her second drink in only half of the time she needed for the first one, a warm and light feeling started to grow in her stomach and the last thing she remembered was the mix of yellow and orange from her third glass…

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 **There it is, the first chapter of my very first story ever. feel free to leave a review or PM me**


	2. Chapter 2

**As mentioned in chapter 1 I updated this chapter mostly because of formatting and smoothing out a few dialogues.**

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The first thing Judy felt was the warmth of the sunlight touching her face and blinding her eyes. She just rolled over, away from the bright sunlight and moaned as she still was half asleep in her comfortable and incredibly soft bed. Suddenly her eyes shot open. _My bed isn't that soft_ and as soon as she tried to open her eyes her head exploded in sudden pain.

After a few minutes of just lying there with her eyes closed, her headache got weaker again. It still was there but at least she could carefully open her eyes again to take a look around and a feeling of unease grabbed her.

Beside the bed she was lying in there wasn't much else in the room. A nightstand with her phone on it to her left side, a desk standing on the opposite side of the room and a closet and the door at the right side. The whole room looked cold and formal, no pictures or posters, the only thing which at least tried to lighten up the atmosphere was a plant, standing lonely in the corner to her right.

Although the formal look Judy could immediately tell that whoever owned this room wasn't poor, the size of the bedroom was at least the same as her whole apartment and the furniture didn't look cheap as well.

 _Where the hell am I?_ she asked herself and tried to remember what happened the day before, but the last thing she could remember was herself and Nick walking out of the concert hall.

Suddenly another thought occurred in her mind. What if she had been kidnapped? But she was walking together with Nick and he wouldn't let someone kidnap her for sure … _Or they beat him up and he was found somewhere hurt or_ … But as her thoughts began to get even darker she stopped and her ears perked up straight into the air, but the noise was gone before she could identify it. _I have to get out of here, now!_

She immediately regret trying to stand up as suddenly the floor began to rotate in front of her eyes. _I have probably been drugged,_ she thought as she sat on the edge of the bed and waited for her nausea to vanish. _Maybe someone can hear me if I scream_ she thought but after some time she tossed this thought aside _even if someone is able to hear me, whoever has kidnapped me will hear it for sure and my only advantage right now is that he does not know I'm already awake._ She froze as she suddenly heard footsteps coming near.

As fast as she could Judy crawled back under the sheets and rolled on her side so that her kidnapper only could see her back. As soon as she was lying still she heard the door open slowly and a shiver ran down her spine as she imagined her kidnapper standing there and looking at her. _What should I do if he attacks me_ she thought and panic started to take over her, but a little voice inside her head remembered her that she was brought here by him so whoever was standing there needed something from her, which meant that he wasn't going to attack her.

A few moments later she heard the door closing slowly almost like he didn't want to wake her. Then she heard another door being opened and closed, the sound of a lock being locked and after that it was completely quiet again.

 _My phone!_ the thought suddenly struck her, she had seen her phone only a moment ago … there it was lying on the nightstand, _but why would a kidnapper take my phone and place it there so that I can find it easily and could call for help?_ As soon as she picked it up she got her answer, the display was broken and as she tried to power it on nothing happened. _That's why he left it here, it's broken, it's completely useless and he just left it here to make fun of me_ she thought with a sudden burst of sadness.

Again the little voice inside her head rescued her before she could sink further into her depression. _He didn't lock the door_. She had heard him walk away and he locked a door but after he closed her door, she couldn't remember hearing the typical sound of a door being locked. _It's worth a try_ she thought and slowly tried to stand up again.

As she was finally standing again, still fighting her nausea she realized something else. Although it was completely wrinkled she still wore her dark blue dress, which she had worn at the concert. She walked to the door and tried to open it and, to her complete surprise, the door indeed swung open as soon as she pulled the handle. _But when he thought that it wasn't necessary to lock the door he must be somewhere near_ her dark thoughts began to circle her again, but the tiny voice stated _or he simply forgot_ before she could think about it further _._

She could feel her heart beat faster as she took a careful look out into a floor. There were a total of 5 doors there, Two on the opposite site, one to her left and one at the end of the foyer. As she looked to her right side she could see the entrance to the apartment. Her heart skipped a beat as she rushed to the entrance door and tried to open it, only to find it looked _Of course it's locked_ she thought as panic started to rise in her _What now? I can't get out and whoever kidnapped me has to be still around here somewhere_.

Her panic even grew as she realized she was still standing in the hallway looking at the door, without any cover. After a quick look around, she decided to check the other rooms. Carefully to make as less sound as possible, she sneaked over to the opposite door and listened with her long ears for any suspicious sounds or voices on the other side. As soon as Judy was sure that no one was in the room behind, she silently opened the door to take a look inside.

Behind the door there was another bedroom but it was completely different than hers, the first thing she saw was the medium sized double bed and the fact that the sheets were a total mess told her that this bed has recently been used. A closet was standing on the opposite side of the room but the biggest difference however was the atmosphere in this room. The other bedroom looked official and cold but this one had a kind of personal, private atmosphere. Judy couldn't tell why but this room didn't actual look like it would belong to someone who just kidnapped her.

Slightly confused she took a look into the other two rooms only to find a bathroom on the same side as the second bedroom and an office which looked like no one had used it for a long time behind the last of the four doors. As she was about to open the remaining door at the end of the floor she stopped for a moment and her ears perked up again. _Something … no someone is coming_ she realized and cold fear grabbed her.

She was about to run back to her bedroom but as she started to move she stopped and pure horror approached her as she saw the handle of the entrance door starting to move. Without thinking she opened the door to her left and closed it behind her at the same moment the entrance door opened.

She could hear her own heartbeat as she stood there waiting for her kidnapper to go away again. _What if he looks into my room and finds out I'm not in there_ , her thoughts started to threaten her again. She was sure that her kidnapper would just walk into her room and would see her empty bed any second now, but thanks to her sensitive ears she was at least able to hear what was going on at the other side of the door.

She heard footsteps, the sound of the entrance door being closed followed by more footsteps _At least he is about my weight_ she was able to conclude as she listened the steps getting louder _maybe I can bring him down if I surprise him_ she thought, but before she could work out a plan the footsteps stopped in front of the door and she instinctively held her breath.

Suddenly she heard a sniffing sound at the other side of the door _he can smell me, he knows I'm in here_ she started to panic _what should I do now, he will come in here, he will find me, what am I supposed to do?_ She thought as the panic grew inside her with every second. The time slowed down for her as the door handle started to move down slowly, almost like it tried to buy her a few more moments to hide somewhere, but she was just standing there staring at the door, unable to move.

Then everything happened at once, as soon as the door opened she reacted instinctively. She launched herself of the floor toward her enemy, who only had enough time to look at her with a surprised look in his green eyes. She used the momentum of her jump to grab him and swing herself over him. As soon as she was at the height of his back she kicked him so he would trip into the office. Her opponent however dodged her attack by simply stepping forward and turned around. Before Judy could react his orange furred arms shot forward and grabbed her, she struggled to break his grip but was unable to move since her opponent was not only bigger but stronger than her too. She finally looked at him and suddenly a wave of confusion hit her

"Nick?"

"good morning, carrots" Nick greeted her with his usual sly smile "may I ask you what you're doing in my office room?" he asked with an amused expression on his face.

"I … I wasn't … why are … wait, _YOUR_ office room? This is your apartment Nick?" she suddenly felt the strong urge to vanish and never become solid again.

"Well yeah, but why where you in there?" he asked again. Judy's cheeks burnt hotter than ever before as she told him about her waking up, pretending to still sleep as he looked after her, and how she inspected his apartment to the point where he came home again and she hid behind the first door she reached.

"You … You thought … you were … were kidnapped and … and tried to break out … of my apartment?" he finally managed to say while alternately gasping for air and laughing. Tears streamed down his face as he finally able to calm down again.

"Please don't tell this to anyone" she begged him although she already knew he wouldn't let even the tiniest chance slip to tease her with this story for the rest of her live.

"No way, I'm sorry carrots but this is just too funny to not talk about it" He still was chuckling slightly.

"Anyway, can you tell me why my phone is broken and why I woke up in your guest room?" Judy tried to clarify the situation. Nick knelt down in front of her to be at the same level as his smaller bunny partner.

"Huh? You can't remember carrots?" he asked her now with an expression which was mainly still amusement, but Judy thought there was also something else, almost like hope, but before she could examine it more closely, it was gone and he just smiled at her, waiting for her answer

"Remember what, Nick?" she asked confused.

"Ok, let's try something else, what is the last thing you can remember?" he questioned her again. Judy surprisingly had a hard time to remember the night before,

"I don't know, we were walking home from the concert, you asked me if I would want to go with you to this bar … we met a weasel there … but after this everything is black like someone drugged me and I passed out." She tried to remember.

"no one drugged you carrots, I told you to be careful with these drinks. You just drank too much and got a hangover that's all" he said and Judy thought again that, only for a moment, there was something like relief on his face, but like before it almost instantly was replaced by his usual smile again. Suddenly her head began to throb again and it was getting worse with every second.

"Please say you have something against this headache, Nick" she managed to moan although the throbbing was getting even worse with any word she said. Nick just gave her a wide smile

"Sure, come on I have a few things that might be helpful", with that he stood up again, turned around and opened the remaining door. As soon as Judy was able to look at the other side she gasped in surprise.

She was standing in the living room which was at least twice the size of her apartment, on the right side was an open kitchen, only separated by a counter from the associated dining table which was standing in front of her. As she took a quick look to her right side, she saw a gigantic but really comfortable looking couch in front of an even bigger flat screen. But she registered all of that only briefly as her eyes were locked at the opposite wall of the room. The fact that the whole wall was made of glass alone was amazing but Judy could see the skyline of Zootopia central with Tundratown on the left and Sahara square on the right side in the background.

"I guess you like the view carrots?" she heard Nick's voice and realized she was standing there with her mouth open, staring at the beautiful scene.

"I … I just … you really _live_ here Nick?" she asked in completely disbelief and turned her head as she heard him chuckle.

"No, I just hustled the owner some time ago and as he realized he had been tricked, he attacked me. I killed him and now it's my place I guess" he said with a shrug.

"Oh ok …. Wait WHAT !?" Judy shouted with a high voice, but he just chuckled again

"Relax carrots, that was a joke. Yeah I live here … and before you ask, no I won't tell you how I actually got this place, because else you would have to cuff and arrest me and that's something I don't want to try … at least not under that circumstances" he stated with a wink and a cocky smile which caused Judy's cheeks to heat up again. But to her relief Nick either didn't even notice her blush or he was too polite to make a comment about it.

"Come on Nick I want to know that story, who did you need to hustle to get this apartment, I promise I won't tell anyone … please?" she asked with this specific look, which she knew Nick wouldn't be able to withstand for long and as he didn't give in after a few moments she added a small pout. That worked and she could see how he was slowly falling for it.

"Fine" he finally gave in "I promise you, I hustled nobody in order to get this place." he answered with a slightly annoyed voice, but Judy wasn't satisfied with that answer.

"But how are you able to afford this place?" she tried to get more information out of him.

"Listen carrots, I really don't want to talk about that right now, ok?" and this time his voice sounded quite annoyed. Judy begged him but after a few minutes she gave it up and had to promise him that she won't ask him about his apartment again and that she won't tell anyone about it.

"Here, that will help with your headache" he gave her a white pill and a glass of water which where both almost instantly swallowed by Judy.

"What were we doing last night Nick?" she asked while she waited for the throbbing pain in her head to vanish.

"You honestly can't remember?" He was sitting on the couch now and as she slowly shook her head he gestured her to join him. "Well you said the last thing you could remember was the incident with Jack, right?". As Judy heard his name again, she remembered the weasel, especially the look on his face as he found out that Nick was a cop.

"The next thing I can remember is waking up in your guestroom" she confirmed while nodding slowly, still waiting for her headache to disappear.

"Well I honestly didn't think you would get a hangover, but I have to admit you were definitely drunk, really drunk last night" he started to tell her. "At the point we left that place, you had drunk way too much and I decided to bring you here instead of leaving you alone at your place. I figured that you might want to have something against headache when you would wake up, so I left to get you some painkillers, I didn't want to wake you so I locked the door. As you might remember I lost my keys a few days ago so I took the remaining spare key with me to get back in. I didn't see any problems in locking you in here, it was only for a few minutes and I honestly didn't think you would wake up and would instantly believe you had been kidnapped."

Judy had a feeling that he wasn't telling her the whole story, after six months with him she began to know if he was lying or not, but a more important thought struck her

"What happened to my phone, I saw that it wasn't working and the display was shattered." she asked and got confused as Nick chuckled as he heard her question.

"Well as we walked back home you had the glorious idea to call your parents" as he saw her shocked face he giggled again "I tried to grab your phone but you were faster, you ran away and after I chased you for a few minutes you tripped and tossed your phone on the ground, that's all" he explained to her.

After she thanked him for watching over her, which he reassured her was no big deal at all, another part of her body began to hurt pretty bad suddenly, but this time she instantly knew why it was hurting.

"you have something to eat around here Nick? I'm starving" she asked him.

"That's no surprise carrots, it's at least 2pm by now, let's look if we can find something to eat for you" With that he stood up and walked away towards the kitchen area.

Judy used the time to close her eyes again and she already was asleep as Nick approached her with a plate full with fresh fruits and another glass of water in his paws. He just looked at her for a moment and tried to decide if he should wake her, but then he smiled, put the plate and the glass down on the table which was standing between the couch and the TV and went away.

After a few moments he was coming back again, now with a blanket in his paws which he, carefully due to not wake her, covered her with. After that he turned on his own phone and made a photo of her as she was sleeping peacefully.

 _She just looks so damn cute when she is sleeping_ he thought as he was lying down on the other side of the couch to get a little rest himself. _Let's just hope this stupid phone is actually broken_ was the last thing he thought before he drifted off into his own dream.

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 **Well, I hope you guys liked the new chapter. Don't forget to review or PM me anytime to let me know what you're thinking**

 **P.S.: The next Chapter may need a bit more time because I still have a few other things to do than writing a fanfic (although I really enjoy it). Just wanted to warn you**


	3. Chapter 3

**As mentioned in Chapter 1 I updated this Chapter (mostly formatting and minor changes in** **dialogues)**

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They were standing in the same Gondola in which they stood after they managed to escape Mr. Manchas half a year ago, even the sun was rising for a new morning just like back then. Judy was standing in the exact same position, her arm slightly touching Nick's as she tried to comfort him. The only difference between now and back then were the words coming out of her mouth.

"Nick, I … I … I love you".

Nick was completely baffled and he looked at her surprised at first, but soon his surprised look was replaced by an openly affectionate smile and her concerned look changed into a relieved smile as she noticed his reaction

"I love you too" He managed to say before she fell around his neck and hugged him tightly, tears of joy suddenly running down her cheeks.

 _*bzzzzz*_ _*bzzzzz*_

 _Judy_ looked at him with a concerned look, _what's with this noise_ he thought annoyed as the humming sound grew louder and louder.

 _*bzzzzz* *bzzzzz*_

"Nick … can you hear that?" Judy asked with a trembling voice and fear in her eyes. The last thing he saw was the fearful look in her eyes before he woke up.

He felt an odd pressure at his side as he woke up, as he looked down he saw a grey rabbit curled up against his side. _She will freak out if I wake her now_ he thought with a grin.

 _*bzzzzz* *bzzzzz*_

The buzzing sound of his phone jolted him out of his thoughts and he remembered his dream again _Like something like that would ever happen_ he thought embittered. But he still had the little moments to enjoy with her. Like right now, as she was lying beside him curled up into a ball of fluff and sleeping peacefully.

He, slowly as he tried not to wake her, leaned forward and grabbed his phone from the table.

" _Hello?_ " he whispered and instinctively held the phone a few centimeters away from his sensitive ears as he heard the loud voice of Chief Bogo.

"Officer Wilde, why are you whispering?" The Chief asked confused in his natural loud voice.

"I can't speak right now chief" Nick tried to end the call as soon as possible due to not wake Judy.

"Officer Wilde, I don't care where you are right now or the fact that it's Saturday, if you can't speak than move your tail to a place where you can because we have a serious problem regarding officer Hopps".

" _What problem_ " Nick whispered back with a curious look down to the still sleeping rabbit at his side.

"We believe that Officer Hopps got kidnapped". _Are you kidding me!?_ Nick screamed internally, but before he could say anything the Chief started to explain the details.

"I got a call from her parents this morning during which they told me that they got a call from officer Hopps last night. I don't know the details but officer Hopps screamed something like 'He is chasing my, oh my god he is really chasing me' over and over again, after that the line went dead. I tried to contact her but her phone is dead and as I sent two officers to her apartment they found it empty. I don't know who did it but it might be somebody who got arrested by her, there is even the chance that Bellwether has something to do with that." As the Chief still explained the supposed abduction, Nick promised himself that he never would let Judy get even near something alcoholic ever again.

" _Chief, I can assure you that Officer Hopps is fine"_ Nick insulted the not ending explanation of the Chief who know was speaking about what they should do next. Bogo kept silence a few moments

"Could you please repeat that Officer Wilde?" He asked with a confused voice and Nick smiled as he imagined the Chief's look right now.

" _As I said Chief, I promise you Officer Hopps is safe … but I really have to end this conversation now"_ He added as Judy's ears began to twitch, which was a clear sign that she would wake up soon.

"My office, Monday morning 7:00am … and Officer Hopps should call her parents" with that the line went dead. Nick sighted as he thought about the conversation which they were going to have with Bogo next Monday. He looked down at Judy " _You really should stay away from cocktails carrots"_ he murmured.

Even before Judy opened her eyes she could feel something warm at her side. She opened her eyes but the only thing she saw was orange, confused she lifted her head only to see Nick's green eyes looking at her. Then she realized the warm thing she felt was Nick and her cheeks started to heat up.

"Ohh, … sorry" she mumbled as she sat up and moved away a bit.

"There is nothing to apology for, carrots" he stated with a wink and added "But I think you would like to know that I just had a nice conversation with our favorite buffalo while you were asleep" in order to move the subject to something more important.

"What did he want?" she asked surprised after she discovered the plate with the fruits which was still standing on the table and started nibbling on an apple slice.

"Nothing important, he just wanted to tell me that you were kidnapped" Nick answered and grinned as he saw Judy's eyes grew wide. After he told her the whole story she was just sitting there mouth slightly open, staring at him in total disbelief.

After a few moments she finally snapped out of her paralysis and asked Nick for his phone with an almost depressed sounding voice. Slowly and with shaky fingers she typed the number of her mother and then hit the green call button.

"Hello?" came a female voice out of the speaker.

"Hi Mom, it's me" Judy tried to sound as normal as possible.

"Judy?" The voice nearly screamed "Judy, oh my god Stu … Stu come here its Judy" and a few moments later a male voice joined the female one

"Judy are you ok?" Stu asked and his voice was full of concern.

"Yeah dad, I'm doing fine don't worry".

"What happened, you called us and … and you screamed and then the line went dead" her mother asked.

"I … got a bit drunk yesterday and my phone broke" Judy tried to explain the situation, but her parents were even more concerned after they heard that she had been drunk. The next two hours, Judy argued with her parents about her living in the city and that it would be safer if she just would come home again.

Finally, after a "I love you too guys" from Judy, she ended the call and dropped back down on the couch with a sight

"Nick promise me that you just cuff and arrest me if I ever get near to something alcoholic again" Nick just giggled and gave her one of his sly smiles.

"Could you please drive me back home. I know it's only 20 minutes but I don't feel like walking right now … and we could grab some food on the way." She asked while she was giving him his phone back.

Half an hour later Judy opened the door to her tiny apartment and dropped down on her bed with a sight. She thought about what she should do now and her first thought was a new phone, but as she looked at her clock, she realized that most of the shops were closed by now and tomorrow was Sunday so she couldn't get a new one for at least the next one and a half days.

…

"Morning carrots, ready for a nice talk with the chief?" Nick greeted her with a smile as she entered his car like every morning. Judy's apartment was located between Nick's and the precinct so Nick offered her to pick her up a few months ago and since then he was waiting for her every morning with a smile on his muzzle and a fresh coffee in his paw. Judy only rolled her eyes and gave a little groan as she gratefully took a sip from the coffee which Nick gave her right after she closed the door.

"Oh come on carrots, enjoy it. This might be the last day for you working as an Officer" Nick teased her.

"He wouldn't go that far, although a few weeks of parking duty are a bit more realistic, but you could get some serious troubles Nick" Judy explained and after a questioning look from her partner she added "Well this is all your fault Nick, you hustled an innocent bunny to get drunk, broke her phone and kidnapped her" she added with a cocky smile.

"Sure and I'll just call your mother and talk with her about myself, unless you finally informed them about my existence?" Nick responded with a grin on his face.

"I … I'm still waiting for the right moment" Judy mumbled with an uncomfortable look.

"Sure I guess the perfect moment to tell them about your police partner and friend for the past six months doesn't appear quite often." Nick stated with an annoyed voice "It's because I'm a fox right?".

"No of course not … maybe … a bit, they're still a bit … insecure when it comes to foxes" Judy tried to comfort him.

"Don't they work together with that Gideon guy?"

"Yeah but there is still a difference between seeing him once a week or knowing that he is your daughters partner and around her the whole time everyday at least five days a week"

"So does that mean it would be easier to tell them when you could say something like relax guys I only have to deal with that fox once a week for a few hours?"

"Come on Nick, you know I didn't mean it that way. Don't be unfair, it's something totally different for them" Judy tried to calm her partner down, she knew that the whole thematic of her family accepting Nick really got to him.

After a few minutes, Judy were rescued from the awkward silence which lasted between them as they reached the parking lot of the ZPD.

"Nick, please don't act so annoyed, I promise you I'll tell them as soon as possible" with that she jumped out of his car and went off to the entrance. Nick was able to catch up with her as she was already waiting in front of the door to Chief Bogo's Office.

"You're getting slow fox" she teased him as he finally was standing beside her.

"That's why I always keep somebody like you around who does all the running" he replied with a wink. Judy giggled as she knocked on the door and her smile was replaced by a serious and concerned look as she heard the Chiefs voice, telling her to come in.

"Officer Hopps, Officer Wilde, take a seat" The Chief said with a calm voice and watched them as they entered his office and closed the door. Once they both were finally sitting in one of the big chairs he let out a deep sight. "Could you please explain me now how your parents got my private number, called me on a Saturday morning only to tell me that they believed that you were kidnapped, Officer Hopps?" he asked with a calm voice, but Judy could see the anger in his eyes.

"First, I have no Idea how my parents got your number Chief, and about the other thing … well … I … got a bit drunk last Friday … and I called my parents before Officer Wilde could stop me, my phone broke back then so that's the reason why they or you couldn't reach me. Officer Wilde decided that it would be safer to bring me into his apartment than letting me alone …" Judy explained with an uncomfortable expression on her face.

"So you're telling me Officer Hopps, that my best Officer nearly triggered a city wide search operation and got me to come here during weekend because YOU WERE DRUNK!?" Judy flinched as Bogo's voice raised with the last words. "I SHOULD FIRE BOTH OF YOU INSTANTLY" he yelled now fully enraged. "I SHOULD ARREST BOTH OF YOU FOR INCREDIBLE STUPIDITY" even Nick's ears fell back now as he tried to keep the loud voice from penetrating his sensitive ears.

"So does that mean that you actually won't fire us?" Nick asked hopefully completely ignoring the dumbfounded look his partner gave him. After he stared down at both of them for a few minutes the Chief sighted and began to explain.

"Unfortunately, you're right Officer Wilde I still need you two. In the past few weeks there were a few robberies in savanna central and the officers who had the case couldn't solve it so this is your chance. If you solve it, you both keep working here. If not, you both will get parking duty for the rest of your life … if you are lucky" with that Chief Bogo handed them a folder with a few pictures in it.

With a grateful look Judy took the folder and jumped down the giant chair.

"Oh, I almost forgot, the mayor himself called me regarding this case and I told him that it will be solved due Wednesday, so either you solve this case in the next three days or I'll assign someone else to this case and you two will still get parking duty until you retire" he told them as they were about to leave the office.

* * *

 **I know it's already almost a week since my last upload but as I wrote in the last chapter, I had a few things to do. But all I wanted to do is done now and I finally have more time to write again. I promise it won't take a week again to write the next chapter and I'm sorry I couldn't get this done sooner. don't forget to leave a comment or PM me**


	4. Chapter 4

**As mentioned in Chapter 1 I updated this Chapter too (mostly formatting and minor dialogue changes)**

* * *

"How are we supposed to solve this case in only two days" Nick closed the folder in his paws with a deep sigh, only to open it and starting to read again a few moments later. He was sitting in the cubicle which he shared with Judy, rubbing his exhausted eyes.

"It's quite late carrots, maybe we get some new ideas after a few hours of sleep" he stated with a tired look on his phone, but as he looked to his right at said bunny, he realized she probably didn't even hear him as she was staring at her computer monitor like she was in a kind of trance.

"carrots … caarrrooottss … CARROTS!" although he was yelling the third time Judy still ignored him, with a disapproving groan he stood up and walked over to her. _There it is again_ he thought _the famous carrots working fever_ as he approached her while she was looking at the footage of some security cameras.

"How is it possible that you got such long ears and still are able to not hear me?" he teased her while resting his muzzle on her head in order to get her attention. His plan worked out and he grinned slightly as the bunny beneath his snout was trying to look up at him with a puzzled expression.

"Sorry, did you say something Nick?" Judy asked, giving up the try to look up at her partner and instead focusing the footage again.

"I said that it's already quite late carrots, and you look like someone who could use a few hours of sleep" Nick repeated with a sigh although he already knew that she was probably planning on working the night through in order to get a few leads on this cursed case.

"I can't go home now Nick. I only have watched the footage of four robberies so far which means there are still videos of another five left, maybe the other officers have missed something." Judy said exactly what Nick had hoped she wouldn't.

"Listen carrots, I know we don't have much time left but if you stay awake the whole night in order to find a lead, you won't be able to get anything done tomorrow. Don't you think it's better if you go home now and let me watch the remaining records?" He tried to convince her. Sure, he would have to watch this damn videos the whole night long but it was worth it if he could keep Judy from overworking herself, which he knew was a realistic thread.

He had noticed it several times in the past, first time at the nighthowler case during which Judy stayed awake for at least 48 hours straight, without any rest. Nick had slept several times back then, for example as they waited almost the whole day for the night in order to sneak into this crazy old hospital, but at this time Judy was trying to get some information about that place. After they arrested the Mayor he asked her if she wasn't at least a bit tired but she just told him that she had no time for such things and that she could still sleep now, that the case was solved. This was the time Nick started to call it ' _the famous carrots working fever´_ and it appeared again a few times after that.

"Have you found anything new Nick?" Judy asked completely ignoring his suggestion and still looking at the monochrome video on her computer. With a sigh of defeat Nick lifted his head back up from her head, walked back to grab his own chair and was sitting beside his partner a few moments later. _The only way to prevent her from completely overdoing herself now is to solve this damn case as soon as possible_ he thought and began to repeat all the facts they knew.

"We have nine robbed jewelry stores, all of them with the same method. Two criminals walk in in some kind of black full-body-suits and instantly starting to smash every security camera, almost like they exactly know where the cameras are. After they're finished they rob the store and then disappear without any trace. We don't know where they are going and not even one traffic camera could get a clear shot of them getting away. We don't even exactly know which species they are, thanks to their suits, only that one is medium sized maybe a wolf and one small could be a raccoon or something similar." Nick listed and realized how bad their situation really was. The two thieves knew the position of every security camera or alarm which means that they had to scout the stores before they robbed them but there were no suspicious activities on the footage, no one who was only coming in and looking around for a few minutes and then was leaving again and although there were mammals who just walked in to take a closer look now and then there was no one among them who did just that in every jewelry store shortly before it was robbed.

And as if that wasn't bad enough Nick and Judy didn't even have the slightest idea how the thieves were able to just appear in front of the store without any traffic camera filming them and disappear again after they successfully robbed the jewelry store. They only were filmed once, during their first heist, the footage showed how they came out of a side street beside the store and disappeared in it again, their bags full with jewelry. The plot was that the street was a dead end and there was no way where they could have gone.

"carrots you really should go and get some sleep, you only will miss any hints if you keep staring at this videos, besides you look horrible" Nick tried on last time to convince her. Of course he was exaggerating it, Judy didn't look horrible just a little bit tired, but still he knew that he had to get her away from the case for a few hours before she actually could find a lead in order to have the slightest chance of success. Because as soon as she was able to find something, nothing would be able to stop her from follow the lead regardless how long it might take her to solve the case. To his complete surprise she looked at him for a moment and then started nodding slowly.

"Do you really want to do this? I know you are already half dead without coffee every morning though you get enough sleep and you want to stay up the whole night?" She questioned, but he just assured her to don't worry about that and that he would be perfectly fine.

"Okay, if you're sure about this than who am I to try to foil your plans" She finally gave in and stood up. With a tired "Good night" she left the office and a few moments later, the precinct. At the same time Nick was starting to watch the footage himself. _At least I can enjoy the peace_ he tried to comfort himself after realizing what he had done just now.

It was true that the quiet moments were rare at the precinct, there always were a criminal brought in who tried to convince the whole world he was innocent by screaming it out as loud as possible or the chief who was arguing with some of his officers and many other things which penetrated his sensitive ears all day long. But the amount of boring footage he had to watch now was definitely not worth the peaceful silence.

The worst part however was that the footages were not only monochrome, which itself was already kinda painful to watch, but the quality was also pretty low. _How am I supposed to find anything helpful when I can't even tell if this guy is a weasel or a mink_ he thought with a little growl as another figure entered the shop. After a few moments he decided that it was probably a weasel and was about to hit the fast forward button on his keyboard, but he stopped and took a closer look at the mammal who was still standing near the door just looking around.

After he watched footage a few times, he was sure about it and instantly took his phone to call Judy. But after a look on the digital clock on the display he decided against it. _She probably just fell asleep, I can't wake her up now_ he thought and made a plan what he should do next. Finding him had the highest priority right now and though he had no idea where he should start searching he already had an idea how to find him. He took out his phone in order to call a few friends, maybe one of them had seen him a while ago. _Well at least I got a nice surprise for her when she comes back tomorrow_ he smiled as he dialed the first number and hit the call button.

…

Judy woke up later than usual which wasn't surprising at all, considering the time she finally stopped thinking about the case and fell asleep. As soon as her brain booted up enough to remember the previous day she sprung up and rushed to her phone which was laying on the table on the other side of the tiny room. Although Judy tried a few times to get a bigger apartment she either absolutely hated or couldn't afford it, which was the main reason she was still living in her tiny one-room apartment, it was cheap and she came only here to sleep and then go back to work anyway, so she didn't even need a bigger one.

As soon as she looked at the display a wave of frustration hit her as she saw her own face smiling at her and Nick's face right beside hers looking annoyed but still with an amused spark in his eyes. She set the image as her background a few months ago and it was normally able to lighten up her mood anytime she looked at it. Now it had the exact opposite effect on her as she realized that there was no message or missed calls from her partner, telling her that he had found something important or at least anything new.

With a frustrated sigh she began her morning routine and as she was about to leave her apartment 15 minutes later the phone in her pocket began to vibrate. With one quick movement the phone was lying in her paw and she looked at the message as her eyes grew wide and the frustrated feeling was replaced by excitement.

'Morning carrots, found something, come over asap, BRING COFFEE!'

She reached the precinct after 40 minutes though she normally would only need around half the time. In her paw she held a cup of fresh coffee which she gave to Nick as soon as she saw him sitting in their office, half asleep.

"Seriously Nick why don't you just use the coffee machine in here, I needed to walk quite a detour in order to reach the next snarlbucks and as soon as I entered I was nearly trampled a few times, only because you don't want to use our internal coffee machine" She complained as she was handing him the cup.

"did you ever taste the coffee in here carrots? It tastes horrible and beside after all I have done in the past few hours I think I earned that one" he murmured still half asleep and swallowed half of the cup with one big gulp. With a pleased "Hmm" he stood up and gestured Judy to follow him. Confused she stood back up and followed him out of their cubicle.

"I found something on the footage yesterday after you went home" he started to explain as he noticed her look. "Or someone to be more precisely, He entered the fifth store a few hours before the robbers appeared and took a look around before he left again, which alone wasn't suspicious at all but don't you think it's a little weird for someone like Jack to be suddenly interested in jewelry?"

"You mean this nice and friendly weasel we met in this bar last Friday right?" Judy didn't really want to meet him again, though it surely would be funny to arrest him and bring him in here in one of the interrogation rooms which, Judy suddenly realized, were the destination of their little walk. "Wait, Nick … you already found him?".

"As I said I think I earned it" he stated with a wink and gulped down the last drops of coffee from his cup. After a few moments Nick stopped walking and Judy could already see an annoyed weasel sitting in an uncomfortable chair, hands cuffed and waiting.

"Why is he cuffed?" Judy asked. Normally, mammals only got cuffed when it was really necessary in order to keep the officers in charge safe and Judy couldn't believe that this weasel was dangerous, maybe a bit annoyed or angry but seriously dangerous … Nope, not at all.

"Well he tried to attack the officers who brought him in a few times, besides don't you think he would be at least a bit more talkative if you are the one freeing him, maybe even if it's against the rule?" Nick explained to her while looking through the mirrored glass which was between them and Jack.

"So you want me to be the good cop again?" Judy suddenly asked with a pout. "That's not fair I was the nice one last time, its your turn this time Nick. Besides you once were his friend which means that it's easier for you to play the good guy in there"

"ok, fine by me, but please don't play the completely insane bunny like you did last time, I think the guy would still run away if he would see you, although he was a polar bear." He gave in and began to walk towards the door.

"I promise I'll try to behave" Judy giggled and ran after her partner in order to catch up with him before he could reach the door leading to the interrogation room.


	5. Chapter 5

A grin began to spread on his muzzle as Jack recognized the grey bunny who entered the surprisingly similar shade of grey painted room and sat down opposite of him. Behind the bunny officer he met the Friday before for the first time, a fox entered the room, closed the door and leaned against the wall behind his partner and if Jack wouldn't know otherwise he would swear the look of the Fox was a bit concerned. The bunny, Judy was her name as far as he could remember, sighted and looked behind her at her partner.

"Why can't we just arrest him Nick? It surely would make things a lot easier." She suddenly stated with a clearly annoyed voice. "Because he was my friend once and I begged you for giving him a chance maybe?" Nick explained with a shy smile.

For a moment jack thought he misheard him, how could the same guy who helped the police arrest him years ago now reference to him as a friend? Anger started to dwell in him as he realized that whatever was the reason he was here in the first place had probably something to do with this damn fox.

"Oh come on bunny why don't you tell me why am I here instead of flirting with this traitor?" Jack stated and his smile even widened as he saw the reaction to his comment. Nick gave him a horrified yet silently begging look as he predicted it, but the reaction of said bunny was completely different then Jack imagined it would be. He thought she would mumble something and would start to blush as soon as his words would make her memories come up again, but instead her head jerked around and as he saw the look she was giving him his grin almost instantly vanished. The only thing that kept him from trying to run away as far as possible was the fact that his hands were still cuffed.

"Call me _bunny_ one more time and I swear you will regret it" she hissed at him, this terrifying look still in her eyes. She stared at him a few more moments before she sighted and sat back into the chair which she was standing on right now. "The only one who kept me from putting you behind bars instantly is standing right behind me, you can thank him later if you want."

Again anger was about to rise in Jack as he heard her. How could this fox dare to stand up for him, he didn't even know why he was here in the first place but the thought of _Nick_ standing up for him and begging his partner to give him a chance alone was enough to make him sick, even if the thought of _Nick_ feeling guilty for what he had done do him was kinda satisfying. But he should be damned if he would make this one easy for Nick.

"Why would I thank him, he is a freaking traitor and a sorry excuse of a fox if you ask me" he stated and watched with a cold smile as Nick jerked back slightly like someone just hit him physically and a look of regret flashed over his face.

"Nick, are you sure we shouldn't just lock him up and close this damned case?" The evil bunny across the table started to speak again.

"No… please Judy give him at least a chance to explain himself" Nick answered with a defeated voice. As she heard this, the look of Judy hardened again as she was focusing Jack again.

"Well, you heard him _Jack_. Do you have something to say?" Judy asked him with a cold look in her eyes. What was the point with all this crap here? He didn't do anything wrong and when he did something slightly illegal, he was sure no one would see or recognize him so what did they want from him now?

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about … _bunny_ " he didn't even had time to react as she suddenly jumped on the table and almost knocked him of his chair with one swift but powerful kick. The only thing which kept him on his chair were his handcuffs which were attached to the table

"This is police brutality" he squeaked, rubbing his hurting cheek where her leg hit him. Although he had a hard time not just trying to jump up and kill this rabbit, a part of him gave her credit for the strength she had and the mayor part of him suddenly didn't want to mess with her at all.

"Police brutality? Why was that police brutality? You just tried to attack me. That was self-defense, isn't that right Nick?" she looked at Jack a warm smile on her face now. At least now Jack knew that this bunny was crazy and a cold shiver crawled down his spine as he imagined what she would do with him if her partner wasn't here.

"I'm sorry Jack I should have warned you about her" Nick, still leaning against the wall, sighted and gave his partner a concerned look again, who in return just smiled at him and sat back down.

"As I said, I still don't know what I'm doing here" Jack confessed as he sat back up, still rubbing his now slightly swollen cheek.

"You were seen in a jewelry store a few days ago Jack, and guess what … the same store got robbed a few hours later" Judy finally explained his situation to him as he was finally sitting again. A cold shower ran down his spine again as he remembered the day. " _They said it would be save, they guaranteed me that no one would suspect me"_ he thought.

"Since when is it a crime to look around in some shops?" He tried to defend himself.

"It's not, but accompliceship to armed robbery is" Judy stated and smiled as she saw the shocked expression on Jacks face. "Listen Jack, you have two options. Number one, you sit here and pretend to know nothing until a lose my patience and believe me, we both don't want that to happen" she explained with a wink. "Or number two, you tell us everything you know about the two mammals who hired you and where we can find them and we'll maybe only arrest you for accompliceship to armed robbery in one case and not in all nine of them". With that she stood up and walked out of the room while mumbling something about needing a coffee.

As soon as she was out of the door, Nick walked around the table and sat down on the desk beside him. "Listen buddy, I know you don't really like me but trust me, you don't want to be in her way … in academy she beat even a rhino with only a single blow." Nick said and nodded as he saw the disbelief on Jacks face. "I know you won't believe me, I just wanted to warn you. Last one who thought he was harder than her was a polar bear … I think he still would run if he would see her now."

"And you think I believe you?" was all Jack was able to say, although he pretended to don't believe the fox sitting beside him, the fact that he began to fear the moment this rabbit would come back again proved him otherwise. He believed Nick almost instantly, but to hell with him if he would let anybody see him being afraid of a little bunny.

"As I said, you don't need to believe me I just wanted to warn you. Why don't you just give her the information she wants? It took me full two hours to convince her to not just lock you up and pretend you are the robber in all nine cases."

"I didn't ask you to play friend for me, or did you honestly think if you would help me now I would just forgive you? I can assure you that won't happen"

"Listen Jack, I know I fucked up back then and I don't ask for your forgiveness for what I have done, I just wanted to help you one last time, please just tell us where we can find the ones who hired you and I promise I keep my partner from putting you behind bars. That's your easiest way out of here … but you would have to tell me everything before she comes back otherwise we won't have any other chance." Jack could tell somehow that Nick was telling him the truth, something in his hopeful look convinced him to tell him the truth, or at least a few things they could use.

"Alright here is the deal, I tell you the truth and in exchange you keep me safe from your little girlfriend and set me free" Jack offered and as soon as he spoke those words a horrified look flashed over Nicks face for a few moments.

"Don't say something like that again, especially if she could hear it" Nick begged him.

"But I thought … after what happened back then" Jack was honestly surprised, he heard it himself as he was near their table by coincidence last Friday.

"She can't remember" Nick explained with a relieved voice "and I'm glad about it, so if you bring her memories back with your little comments, I swear I'll tear you to pieces." And like before Jack could immediately tell Nick told him the truth again. He couldn't help but feel at least a bit sorry for this fox.

"ahem … however I wanted to tell the truth" Jack tried to overcome the awkward silence between them and started to explain everything after a simple nod of his ex-friend. "So a few days ago a lioness approached me and asked me if I want to earn a lot of money. Of course I was skeptical at first but after she explained me what I had to do I was grateful for this opportunity. I should scout out a specific jewelry store. I would get 20 percent of everything they would rob and all I had to do was to remember any security systems." Jack tried to remember everything which could be important. "They're using the sewer systems to move unnoticed and as far as I know they even have some kind of storage down there where they leave their robbed goods until its save to sell them."

Nick, who listened closely, nodded and scribbled a few things on a notepad which was lying beside him on the desk. "Do you know anything about the actual robbers? Like species, name or something?"

"Not much, I never met them personally … but the lioness I talked about earlier called me and told me how I could get my money a few hours ago. She said it would wait for me in a locker at the central station, and that she threw the key into my mailbox." Again Nick scribbled some nodes down.

"Anything else?" he asked but Jack just shook his head and told him that was everything he knew. "Okay then … could you wait here for a few moments please" Nick stated and walked out of the room.

* * *

Nick closed the door behind him and grinned as he saw a grey bunny leaning against the wall beside him "Did I ever tell you how good you're at acting carrots?" he questioned but she just giggled.

"thank you and before you say something, I know I shouldn't have kicked him. But more important, did he talk to you?" Judy asked with a hopeful look.

"After the evil bunny left the room you mean?" on that Judy giggled again "Yeah he was quite talkative although he didn't know that much about our robbers, just that they use the sewer system to move around and that they probably have a place where they keep all the stolen goods down there".

"That's all?" Judy asked and her long ears fell down in disappointment. Jack was their only lead and without it, it would be impossible to solve the case in this short time they had left.

"Oh, I almost forgot … a Lioness deposited his payment in a locker at the central station" Nick added with a sly smile.

"Nicholas P. Wild, you are the worst" Judy stated annoyed but still relieved that he was just teasing her again. Before he had the chance to reply anything she dashed of back to their cubicle in order to get the footage of the Zootopia central station.

Half an hour later Judy was sitting in front of her computer again and was looking at the footage like she did only a day earlier. It was hopeless, there were dozens of mammals using the lockers at the central station and although there were only a few lionesses among them, without a description it was still impossible to tell who Judy was searching for right now.

"carrots"

She looked around confused as she heard Nicks voice calling her, but there wasn't anyone nearby. Maybe it was just her mind trying to get some distraction from the boring videos in front of her.

"Caarrroootts"

Although she was sure she hadn't imagined the voice this time, but like before she couldn't find a sign of Nick, who was the only one calling her that. With a sight she focused on the footage again.

"Carrots, pick up your phone"

The voice came from under a pile of papers she used to take notes some time ago. She looked beneath them only to find a phone lying there. It didn't belong to her and it wasn't Nick's either as far as she could tell, but still the only one who could have changed the ringtone of whoever's mobile phone this was, was Nick because he was the only one who called her that, so she decided to pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Judy I guess you found your new phone?" came Nick's voice out of the speaker.

"Wait this is your phone Nick?"

"nope it's yours, your phone broke so I got you a new one"

"Wait, did you just say that you bought me a new phone?"

"Yep"

"Why would you do this Nick? It is far too expensive to buy me a phone just like that"

"It wasn't that much and I kinda felt responsible that your phone broke, so please just use it instead of buying another one"

"I can't even give you the money for it, seriously Nick I can't accept this"

"Really now? Listen, can we talk about that later? I have something important to tell you"

"Well, ok but we'll talk about is sometime … speaking of time Nick, you now we only got today to solve this case don't you? so where are you?"

"Which brings us to the purpose of this little conversation right no. While you were checking every lioness at the whole station without a plan I drove Jack back to his apartment"

"And what has that to do with our case right now?" Judy started to get annoyed.

"After I drove him home I waited for him to get the key and followed him to the station where I not only got a good amount of the robbed goods, but I also know that the number of the locker was 173"

Judy was sitting there at her workstation, staring at here phone. She had done it again, she had rushed into things without thinking again and without Nick she would have sat here the rest of the day staring at the footage and wondering how the hell she was supposed to solve the case.

"carrots? You still there somewhere?"

Now she realized she was still staring at her phone without saying a word.

"ehh… yeah, thank you Nick, I don't know what I would do without you"

"I know carrots, that's why we are such a good team, you do the running and I do the thinking" he answered with his usual sly voice and a giggle.

"But how did you get Jack to give you the money" Judy was wondering while she already searched the footage for the specific number.

"… to be honest I didn't really talk to him"

"but how did you get it from him?"

"One of the perks of living on the streets for half of your life is learning how to pickpocket"

"Why the hell would you do this Nick? you're a cop" Judy asked as she finally found the locker and began to fast forward the footage.

"Of course I could just have shown up, said that if he doesn't give me the bag I'll arrest him and then arrest him because he, of course, wouldn't have given me the bag, but instead we have the stolen goods and a new friend now too if we ever need some information"

"Wait, how comes you two are friends again?" Judy asked confused. She couldn't quite imagine how Nick got this weasel to call him friend again after the things Jack called Nick only half an hour ago.

"As I said, I drove him home to his apartment. I used the time to make him belief that I'm truly sorry for what I did to him" the voice which was coming out of her phone explained.

"And he believed you?" Judy couldn't believe it. How could this be even possible, half an hour ago this Weasel was totally convinced that Nick has betrayed him, which was the truth, and now they were friends again?

"Do I hear doubt in your voice, Officer Hopps?" His voice stated offended.

"maybe a little bit"

"You wound me officer, what have I done to lose your trust?"

"Well a few things, for examp … wait … Nick how long does it take you to come back here to pick me up?"

"about 5 minutes, why?"

"I found her"

* * *

 **I can only apology for letting you wait for almost 3 weeks now. I promise again I'll try to update far more often in the future**

 **a huge thank you to all of you who are still sticking with me and supporting this little story, if there is something you want to know or if you have any suggestions how I can get better pls feel free to PM me or write a review ^^.**


	6. Chapter 6

A grin began to spread on his muzzle as Jack recognized the grey bunny who entered the surprisingly similar shade of grey painted room and sat down opposite of him. Behind the bunny officer he met the Friday before for the first time, a fox entered the room, closed the door and leaned against the wall behind his partner and if Jack wouldn't know otherwise he would swear the look of the Fox was a bit concerned. The bunny, Judy was her name as far as he could remember, sighted and looked behind her at her partner.

"Why can't we just arrest him Nick? It surely would make things a lot easier." She suddenly stated with a clearly annoyed voice. "Because he was my friend once and I begged you for giving him a chance maybe?" Nick explained with a shy smile.

For a moment jack thought he misheard him, how could the same guy who helped the police arrest him years ago now reference to him as a friend? Anger started to dwell in him as he realized that whatever was the reason he was here in the first place had probably something to do with this damn fox.

"Oh come on bunny why don't you tell me why am I here instead of flirting with this traitor?" Jack stated and his smile even widened as he saw the reaction to his comment. Nick gave him a horrified yet silently begging look as he predicted it, but the reaction of said bunny was completely different then Jack imagined it would be. He thought she would mumble something and would start to blush as soon as his words would make her memories come up again, but instead her head jerked around and as he saw the look she was giving him his grin almost instantly vanished. The only thing that kept him from trying to run away as far as possible was the fact that his hands were still cuffed.

"Call me _bunny_ one more time and I swear you will regret it" she hissed at him, this terrifying look still in her eyes. She stared at him a few more moments before she sighted and sat back into the chair which she was standing on right now. "The only one who kept me from putting you behind bars instantly is standing right behind me, you can thank him later if you want."

Again anger was about to rise in Jack as he heard her. How could this fox dare to stand up for him, he didn't even know why he was here in the first place but the thought of _Nick_ standing up for him and begging his partner to give him a chance alone was enough to make him sick, even if the thought of _Nick_ feeling guilty for what he had done do him was kinda satisfying. But he should be damned if he would make this one easy for Nick.

"Why would I thank him, he is a freaking traitor and a sorry excuse of a fox if you ask me" he stated and watched with a cold smile as Nick jerked back slightly like someone just hit him physically and a look of regret flashed over his face.

"Nick, are you sure we shouldn't just lock him up and close this damned case?" The evil bunny across the table started to speak again.

"No… please Judy give him at least a chance to explain himself" Nick answered with a defeated voice. As she heard this, the look of Judy hardened again as she was focusing Jack again.

"Well, you heard him _Jack_. Do you have something to say?" Judy asked him with a cold look in her eyes. What was the point with all this crap here? He didn't do anything wrong and when he did something slightly illegal, he was sure no one would see or recognize him so what did they want from him now?

"I honestly don't know what you're talking about … _bunny_ " he didn't even had time to react as she suddenly jumped on the table and almost knocked him of his chair with one swift but powerful kick. The only thing which kept him on his chair were his handcuffs which were attached to the table

"This is police brutality" he squeaked, rubbing his hurting cheek where her leg hit him. Although he had a hard time not just trying to jump up and kill this rabbit, a part of him gave her credit for the strength she had and the mayor part of him suddenly didn't want to mess with her at all.

"Police brutality? Why was that police brutality? You just tried to attack me. That was self-defense, isn't that right Nick?" she looked at Jack a warm smile on her face now. At least now Jack knew that this bunny was crazy and a cold shiver crawled down his spine as he imagined what she would do with him if her partner wasn't here.

"I'm sorry Jack I should have warned you about her" Nick, still leaning against the wall, sighted and gave his partner a concerned look again, who in return just smiled at him and sat back down.

"As I said, I still don't know what I'm doing here" Jack confessed as he sat back up, still rubbing his now slightly swollen cheek.

"You were seen in a jewelry store a few days ago Jack, and guess what … the same store got robbed a few hours later" Judy finally explained his situation to him as he was finally sitting again. A cold shower ran down his spine again as he remembered the day. " _They said it would be save, they guaranteed me that no one would suspect me"_ he thought.

"Since when is it a crime to look around in some shops?" He tried to defend himself.

"It's not, but accompliceship to armed robbery is" Judy stated and smiled as she saw the shocked expression on Jacks face. "Listen Jack, you have two options. Number one, you sit here and pretend to know nothing until a lose my patience and believe me, we both don't want that to happen" she explained with a wink. "Or number two, you tell us everything you know about the two mammals who hired you and where we can find them and we'll maybe only arrest you for accompliceship to armed robbery in one case and not in all nine of them". With that she stood up and walked out of the room while mumbling something about needing a coffee.

As soon as she was out of the door, Nick walked around the table and sat down on the desk beside him. "Listen buddy, I know you don't really like me but trust me, you don't want to be in her way … in academy she beat even a rhino with only a single blow." Nick said and nodded as he saw the disbelief on Jacks face. "I know you won't believe me, I just wanted to warn you. Last one who thought he was harder than her was a polar bear … I think he still would run if he would see her now."

"And you think I believe you?" was all Jack was able to say, although he pretended to don't believe the fox sitting beside him, the fact that he began to fear the moment this rabbit would come back again proved him otherwise. He believed Nick almost instantly, but to hell with him if he would let anybody see him being afraid of a little bunny.

"As I said, you don't need to believe me I just wanted to warn you. Why don't you just give her the information she wants? It took me full two hours to convince her to not just lock you up and pretend you are the robber in all nine cases."

"I didn't ask you to play friend for me, or did you honestly think if you would help me now I would just forgive you? I can assure you that won't happen"

"Listen Jack, I know I fucked up back then and I don't ask for your forgiveness for what I have done, I just wanted to help you one last time, please just tell us where we can find the ones who hired you and I promise I keep my partner from putting you behind bars. That's your easiest way out of here … but you would have to tell me everything before she comes back otherwise we won't have any other chance." Jack could tell somehow that Nick was telling him the truth, something in his hopeful look convinced him to tell him the truth, or at least a few things they could use.

"Alright here is the deal, I tell you the truth and in exchange you keep me safe from your little girlfriend and set me free" Jack offered and as soon as he spoke those words a horrified look flashed over Nicks face for a few moments.

"Don't say something like that again, especially if she could hear it" Nick begged him.

"But I thought … after what happened back then" Jack was honestly surprised, he heard it himself as he was near their table by coincidence last Friday.

"She can't remember" Nick explained with a relieved voice "and I'm glad about it, so if you bring her memories back with your little comments, I swear I'll tear you to pieces." And like before Jack could immediately tell Nick told him the truth again. He couldn't help but feel at least a bit sorry for this fox.

"ahem … however I wanted to tell the truth" Jack tried to overcome the awkward silence between them and started to explain everything after a simple nod of his ex-friend. "So a few days ago a lioness approached me and asked me if I want to earn a lot of money. Of course I was skeptical at first but after she explained me what I had to do I was grateful for this opportunity. I should scout out a specific jewelry store. I would get 20 percent of everything they would rob and all I had to do was to remember any security systems." Jack tried to remember everything which could be important. "They're using the sewer systems to move unnoticed and as far as I know they even have some kind of storage down there where they leave their robbed goods until its save to sell them."

Nick, who listened closely, nodded and scribbled a few things on a notepad which was lying beside him on the desk. "Do you know anything about the actual robbers? Like species, name or something?"

"Not much, I never met them personally … but the lioness I talked about earlier called me and told me how I could get my money a few hours ago. She said it would wait for me in a locker at the central station, and that she threw the key into my mailbox." Again Nick scribbled some nodes down.

"Anything else?" he asked but Jack just shook his head and told him that was everything he knew. "Okay then … could you wait here for a few moments please" Nick stated and walked out of the room.

* * *

Nick closed the door behind him and grinned as he saw a grey bunny leaning against the wall beside him "Did I ever tell you how good you're at acting carrots?" he questioned but she just giggled.

"thank you and before you say something, I know I shouldn't have kicked him. But more important, did he talk to you?" Judy asked with a hopeful look.

"After the evil bunny left the room you mean?" on that Judy giggled again "Yeah he was quite talkative although he didn't know that much about our robbers, just that they use the sewer system to move around and that they probably have a place where they keep all the stolen goods down there".

"That's all?" Judy asked and her long ears fell down in disappointment. Jack was their only lead and without it, it would be impossible to solve the case in this short time they had left.

"Oh, I almost forgot … a Lioness deposited his payment in a locker at the central station" Nick added with a sly smile.

"Nicholas P. Wild, you are the worst" Judy stated annoyed but still relieved that he was just teasing her again. Before he had the chance to reply anything she dashed of back to their cubicle in order to get the footage of the Zootopia central station.

Half an hour later Judy was sitting in front of her computer again and was looking at the footage like she did only a day earlier. It was hopeless, there were dozens of mammals using the lockers at the central station and although there were only a few lionesses among them, without a description it was still impossible to tell who Judy was searching for right now.

"carrots"

She looked around confused as she heard Nicks voice calling her, but there wasn't anyone nearby. Maybe it was just her mind trying to get some distraction from the boring videos in front of her.

"Caarrroootts"

Although she was sure she hadn't imagined the voice this time, but like before she couldn't find a sign of Nick, who was the only one calling her that. With a sight she focused on the footage again.

"Carrots, pick up your phone"

The voice came from under a pile of papers she used to take notes some time ago. She looked beneath them only to find a phone lying there. It didn't belong to her and it wasn't Nick's either as far as she could tell, but still the only one who could have changed the ringtone of whoever's mobile phone this was, was Nick because he was the only one who called her that, so she decided to pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Judy I guess you found your new phone?" came Nick's voice out of the speaker.

"Wait this is your phone Nick?"

"nope it's yours, your phone broke so I got you a new one"

"Wait, did you just say that you bought me a new phone?"

"Yep"

"Why would you do this Nick? It is far too expensive to buy me a phone just like that"

"It wasn't that much and I kinda felt responsible that your phone broke, so please just use it instead of buying another one"

"I can't even give you the money for it, seriously Nick I can't accept this"

"Really now? Listen, can we talk about that later? I have something important to tell you"

"Well, ok but we'll talk about is sometime … speaking of time Nick, you now we only got today to solve this case don't you? so where are you?"

"Which brings us to the purpose of this little conversation right no. While you were checking every lioness at the whole station without a plan I drove Jack back to his apartment"

"And what has that to do with our case right now?" Judy started to get annoyed.

"After I drove him home I waited for him to get the key and followed him to the station where I not only got a good amount of the robbed goods, but I also know that the number of the locker was 173"

Judy was sitting there at her workstation, staring at here phone. She had done it again, she had rushed into things without thinking again and without Nick she would have sat here the rest of the day staring at the footage and wondering how the hell she was supposed to solve the case.

"carrots? You still there somewhere?"

Now she realized she was still staring at her phone without saying a word.

"ehh… yeah, thank you Nick, I don't know what I would do without you"

"I know carrots, that's why we are such a good team, you do the running and I do the thinking" he answered with his usual sly voice and a giggle.

"But how did you get Jack to give you the money" Judy was wondering while she already searched the footage for the specific number.

"… to be honest I didn't really talk to him"

"but how did you get it from him?"

"One of the perks of living on the streets for half of your life is learning how to pickpocket"

"Why the hell would you do this Nick? you're a cop" Judy asked as she finally found the locker and began to fast forward the footage.

"Of course I could just have shown up, said that if he doesn't give me the bag I'll arrest him and then arrest him because he, of course, wouldn't have given me the bag, but instead we have the stolen goods and a new friend now too if we ever need some information"

"Wait, how comes you two are friends again?" Judy asked confused. She couldn't quite imagine how Nick got this weasel to call him friend again after the things Jack called Nick only half an hour ago.

"As I said, I drove him home to his apartment. I used the time to make him belief that I'm truly sorry for what I did to him" the voice which was coming out of her phone explained.

"And he believed you?" Judy couldn't believe it. How could this be even possible, half an hour ago this Weasel was totally convinced that Nick has betrayed him, which was the truth, and now they were friends again?

"Do I hear doubt in your voice, Officer Hopps?" His voice stated offended.

"maybe a little bit"

"You wound me officer, what have I done to lose your trust?"

"Well a few things, for examp … wait … Nick how long does it take you to come back here to pick me up?"

"about 5 minutes, why?"

"I found her"

* * *

 **I can only apology for letting you wait for almost 3 weeks now. I promise again I'll try to update far more often in the future**

 **a huge thank you to all of you who are still sticking with me and supporting this little story, if there is something you want to know or if you have any suggestions how I can get better pls feel free to PM me or write a review ^^.**


	7. Chapter 7

"You have no evidence which incriminates my client, which means you don't have the right to detain her" the lawyer of Clara, a leopard, stated as soon as Nick entered the room.

Nick sat down at the opposite side of the table and sighed. The same leopard who just shattered his dreams of going home earlier today also defended the other two suspects they brought in two hours before.

Of course the raccoon John Smith and Richard Timber, the wolf who had been tranquilized by Nick, had been filmed this one time and the police had found the place where they hid all the stuff inside the sewer systems with lots of fur samples or both of them. But still their lawyer put up a fierce fight, defending both.

In both cases he lost at the end, which could be the reason why this damn leopard tried even harder to prove Clara innocent, Nick thought. So that he would have at least a little victory at the end of the day.

Unfortunately, Clara's lawyer made a point. It was indeed nearly impossible to tie Clara to this crimes, no one has seen her, no camera has filmed her, at the hideout there was not even one hair of her fur and Mr. Renner, which was the name of the leopard, convinced both of his previous clients to not say one word about Clara as they confessed.

The only one who could help now was Jack, but he couldn't remember Clara well enough. Of course they could try to find the other mammals the trio used for scouting out the stores, but the fact that they only got a few hours left to solve the case made this impossible.

"could I talk with my lawyer in private for a moment, please?" Clara's voice jolted Nick out of his thoughts. With another sigh he stood up again and walked out of the room he just entered.

"Don't act so annoyed Nick, we have a realistic chance to solve this case in time" Judy greeted him as he walked into the dark room which was lying beside the interrogation room. They could see Clara talking to her lawyer through the mirrored window.

"May I remind you that I watched this freaking footage instead of sleeping, like you did last night?" he snarled way more aggressive as he intended it to be.

"Oh no, is the coffee wearing of again? I'll be right back" and with that she hopped down from the chair she was standing on and walked out of the room, leaving Nick alone.

Although Judy supplied him with fresh and surprisingly tasty coffee almost every hour now and tried to cheer him up constantly, Nick couldn't help it but feel annoyed and frustrated. Now that he knew that he had to stick around here for another verbal fight with this damn lawyer his mood was already at the rock bottom. And it got even worse as he thought about how few to no evidence they had. He just wanted to get some sleep … right now … right here …

…

"Nick, wake up. NIIICK!" his eyes shot open, he realized he was lying on the floor curled up into a ball. Judy was standing beside him holding something. With a yawn he stood up and straightened his uniform.

"Sorry carrots, I think I might be a bit tired" he looked at her and cheered inwardly as he saw that the thing she was holding was a cup of fresh coffee.

Judy, who noticed the begging look Nick gave the cup she was holding, simply handed it to him with a smile.

"Listen, why don't you just sit here, enjoy your coffee and watch me doing the interrogation?"

"No way carrots, If I sit here in this comfy looking plastic chair inside this dark room there is no way I stay awake long enough to see you enter the other room no matter how much coffee I have." Nick stated after downing half of the cup with one gulp.

"You already did the last two questionings. Besides, a little sleep wouldn't harm you Nick" Judy was a bit concerned about Nick, not only that he hadn't slept at all the past night because he wanted to watch the security videos for whatever reason, but today had been quite busy for both of them and Judy herself was already a little tired again although she got more than enough sleep last night.

"carrots, did you just suggestion that I should sleep while I'm on duty?" Nick had already emptied the cup and was slowly waking up again. "Besides I still have a few things to talk about with my personal friend Mr. Renner in there, this is gonna be fun now that I'm awake again".

"You sure Nick?"

"Relax carrots, this will be over in no time, I promise" with that, Nick left the room and made his way back to the interrogation room.

…

"She won't go to jail anyway. She would just have to pay a penalty" Nick sighed frustrated. The last hour had been horrifyingly boring for him and yet he was still sitting in the same room, arguing with the same leopard about the same stuff over and over again.

"Wait a moment, what did you just say?" Clara asked with a shocked look on her face.

"I said that you wouldn't go to jail anyway, you weren't part of the actual robberies" Nick repeated annoyed. The expression of the lioness across him suddenly changed from shock to fear.

"and what if I would confess? Would I go to jail then?" Clara now, close to panicking, asked with a fearful voice.

"Huh? No of course not you even would get milder circumstances if you would confess" Nick was confused now. What was going on all of a sudden? And Clara's expression as she heard him became even more fearful. But he wasn't the only one who was surprised, regarding to her lawyer's face.

Clara on the other hand seemed to recover from her previous outburst of emotions and slowly regained her composure.

"Mr. Renner, thank you for everything you did for me but I don't need your services any longer. I want to confess" She stated with a calm and relaxed voice.

"As your lawyer I strongly advice against doing this, we have a really good chance to prove your innocent" the leopard tried to convince her.

"We both know that I'm guilty Steve but thank you for your effort. You can go now, I need to talk with this officer. Alone" she added as her lawyer didn't move at first. With a sour look he finally stood up and left the room after a short while.

"Mind to enlighten me what just happened?" Nick asked confused. His tiredness nearly vanished after that interesting turn of events. Clara looked at him and sighed.

"I don't have the money to pay anything so how long will I have to be in jail?"

"Not that long, maybe two to three months? I don't exactly know right now"

" _crap_ " Nick heard Clara whispering thanks to his sensitive ears.

"Ok seriously what's going on?"

"what do you mean?" Clara tried to sound surprised, but there still was some nervousness left in her voice which confirmed Nick's suspicion that something wasn't right here.

"Seriously now? Ok first you're panicking as I mention that you won't go to jail. Then you suddenly decide to send out your lawyer and when I say that you can go to jail for two or three months when you can't pay the fine you started to get uncomfortable again" The initial excitement was over and Nick was now even more tired than before which expressed in his growing frustration.

"Its … you wouldn't understand anyway. It's not like everybody's live here in Zootopia is perfect you know" Clara stated with an embittered sound in her voice.

Nick was too tired to explain her that he knew damn well what she was talking about, so he just played along.

"Could you explain this please?"

"I have … debts, but I don't earn enough to pay them back. A month ago they made clear that they don't want to wait for their money any longer so I … I needed money and as John and Richie found me and promised that I could get more than enough money I made a deal with them. But now that this is over they will find me, you have to understand Officer Wilde, this guy does have his henchmen everywhere and as soon as he realizes that I can't repay him he will kill me. The jail is the safest place for me right now." She sniveled and reached into her pocket. As her paw came out again it held a tissue with which the now nearly crying Lioness blew her nose. "You have to help me Officer Wilde, please. I don't know where else to go I need you to imprison me" she managed to say, interrupted by sniffing now and then.

"Okay, Mrs Heartfel can you tell me who exactly threatens you?" Nick asked, unimpressed by her story, he knew there were tons of shady mammals out there. He had more than enough encounters with lots of them. Clara just owed someone a few bucks, that was nothing compared to what he went through back in his days on the street. She knew nothing about the live out there. He grew up in Zootopia being a fox and this mammal across the table who probably grew up in a loving family wanted his compassion? Ridiculous!

 _I really should've accepted that offer from carrots and sleep for a while_ he thought, suddenly afraid of his own thoughts and the anger that rose inside of him just a second ago. But fortunately his opponent didn't notice his inner outburst, she still was sitting there and was now answering his question.

"If I would give you their name's they would find and kill me, please can't you just lock me up?" She begged.

"If these mammals you were talking about are really that powerful, why do you think you would be safe in prison?" Nick asked with an annoyed voice. He regret what he said immediately as he saw her expression change, but it was too late. She starred at him a few moments in silence before she suddenly began to cry heavily.

 _Jeez at least try to act normal you stupid fox. it's not her fault that you're tired as hell_ he scolded himself inwardly as he watched the lioness across him sobbing into her already used tissue.

"Just tell me their names and I promise I'll do anything I can to protect you" Nick tried to calm down the completely upset woman.

"How?" she asked between two sniffs

"What do you mean, _how_?"

"How do you think you can protect me?" The lioness slowly managed to calm down again. She was still sniveling occasionally, but she wasn't crying anymore.

"Well I can't if you won't tell me who they are" Nick tried again to bring her to tell him the names of the criminals. Clara looked at him as she thought about what he said, but after a few moments of silence she finally nodded slowly in agreement.

"Have you ever heard something about Mr. Big's mafia?"

 _What the hell?_ Nick thought. He spent most of his youth working for Mr. Big before this unfortunate incident with that rug took place. The elder mole often referred to him as a son and although he called everyone in his service like thhat, Nick somehow felt that Mr. Big really meant it when he used the word for him. Mr. Big and his henchmen taught him lots of useful stuff back then and cared for him. Nick even believed that if he wouldn't have been so stupid he could have become Mr. Big's successors after …

"Ahem … Officer Wile is everything okay?" a voice jolted Nick out of his thoughts.

"Hmm? Oh right, Yeah I've … heard of him in the past. Yes, definitely" Nick hurried to say as he realized he had been daydreaming about his past again.

"So?" Clara asked, a small hopeful smile on her face.

"So what?" Nick returned the question, still a bit distracted.

"Can you help me?"

"Yeah, I think there are a few things I can do for you" Nick gave her a slight smile. Something was off here and he would find out what it was. Mr. Big's Mafia was not small, the mole had more than enough money to live the rest of his life. Besides, it wasn't his style to rob some random mammal. He would more likely rip off a rich banker or even …

"Oh thank you Mr. Wilde! Thank you! thank you! How can I ever repay you for this?" Clara's voice ripped Nick out of his daydreams once more.

"It's fine, just don't do something illegal like that again and you will still get a trial regarding the things you did" Nick once more felt like he would just fall asleep right here so he excused himself for a moment and hoped Judy would already await him with another cup of the only thing that managed to keep him alive right now, Coffee.

As he left the room he already could smell the scent of fresh hot coffee coming out of the adjacent room and as he entered his partner stood there, in here paw another cup with the black liquid inside.

"thanks carrots. I don't know what I would do without you"

"You probably would be sleeping right now, which you really should do now Nick. I can handle it from here go home and get some sleep. I just need to finish up the paperwork right now and hand it to the Chief"

"I'm fine carrots besides, I can't drive home now" Nick stated and jumped up to the only chair.

"Nick please. You really don't have to stick around here just for my sake. I just need to finish the paperwork and that's it."

"No carrots seriously, I physically can't drive home now. I feel like I would just fall asleep while driving" Nick explained with a tired smile towards his partner. Of course he was exaggerating it but maybe she would drive him home and there was far worse than having someone to drive you home after a long day of work, at least in his opinion. His plan worked out perfectly.

"You know what Nick, you just sit here and wait until I'm finished and then I drive you home okay?" Judy already headed towards the door, without waiting for his answer.

Nick didn't bother answering her, he already knew that she would wake him as soon as she was finished with all the paperwork. So he just curled up into a ball and instantly fell into a deep sleep.

…

"Wake up my sweet little fox" a voice whistled into his sensitive furry ear. He yawned and tried to hide his face under his tail.

"come on sweetheart, or do you want to be here the whole night?" the voice asked amused and slowly Nick's brain booted up.

"give me a few more minutes carrots, please" He begged.

"Oh come on Nick, stand up already" And this time something touched him right between his ears and started petting him with slowly and gentle strokes.

"what exactly are you doing carrots?" He asked, his eyes still closed. He couldn't help it as he started purring slowly as the paw was placed once more on the fur right between his ears and slowly started to move down towards his neck. As it reached his neck fur, the paw lifted off of his fur only to start again at the top of his head.

"I never realized your fur was so smooth Nick. it feels almost like silk" He heard her saying. He finally opened his eyes and looked into her giant beautiful violet eyes. He saw her smile, but it was not one of her usual smiles or the one she gave him back than as she hustled him into helping her.

It was the first time she gave him this kind of smile and as he slowly realized what that smile was, his heart stopped beating. Her smile was full with care and … love, not love like you would look at your sister, mother or maybe your best friend but true deep and open love which was only meant for him. She smiled at him just like he hoped she would someday smile at him since the day he met her.

He felt nothing but happiness and his only hope right now was that the time would freeze so that he could see this expression for the rest of his live. Instead she sighed and it almost sounded pleased.

"Finally, I thought you would never understand it. my dumb fox" She said and her voice was full with a loving warmth he never heard before. She sat down beside him on the chair he was lying on and slowly started caressing his head and neck again. He just lied there, his eyes still lost in the depths of purple and black of hers and he just let it happen as she reached out and took his head into her paws to carefully move his head into her lap. Nick's eyes slowly closed again as he enjoyed the sensation of her paws on his fur and realized he still purred slightly.

"Nick?" her voice was calm and smooth, like new silk you wear for the first time, and she stopped caressing his head.

He just gave her a questioning humming sound, but as she didn't react he opened his eyes and looked up at her without bothering to lift up his head from her lap. She was looking down at him and although her face had still a mostly loving expression on it, there was something else now too something like uncomfortableness or maybe even a hint fear in her eyes. He immediately sat straight up across her looking deep into her eyes.

"Judy? What's wrong?" he asked. It hurt to see the loving smile fading away and slowly being replaced by a questioning look, like something was bothering her but she couldn't decide if she should tell him about it or not.

"Do you love me?"

Nick needed to suppress the sudden impulse of starting to laugh. It was a simple question but Nick never even dreamed of hearing it one day from this mammal. It was ridiculous to believe that she would be interested in him, he was a fox not only that he was her natural enemy and a predator but they were complete different species.

He always thought that one day she would find another rabbit and be happy. It would start with her going out a few times, then this guy would pick her up after work and they would make a walk in her favorite park here in Zootopia. They would become a couple, maybe even marrying and she would be happy with that rabbit, and Nick would just be at her side as a friend as long as he could take it and then leave, silent and without a huge goodbye. But she would be happy and that would be everything that count.

And yet they were sitting here and _she_ just asked _him_ if he would love her. The future he wished for his partner had suddenly a chance to become his own future, he wouldn't be just a weird friend, a third wheel, the one guy who needs to tell everyone he is still here. No. he could be the one making her happy for the rest of her life. He could be the one picking her up after work and walking with her in her favorite park. He could become her mate. He could be the one she would marry. He could be the father of …

"Nick, wake up. Nick" his eyes shot open and he looked around confused as he sat up. He was in the same room, but Judy wasn't sitting with his head in her lap like moments before. She was standing in the open door and her look wasn't full with love and care, it was just her usual look.

"I'm sorry I woke you but I finished the paperwork. Now I can drive you home, if you still want" She explained.

"Sure let's go" He replied and gave her a weak smile as he stood up. He felt empty inside and without the years of training, he wouldn't be able to smile right now. In fact, without his mental wall this would be the first time Judy would be able to see him cry.

* * *

 **There we go, another chapter for my little fanfic. Please let me know what you think through reviews PM or any other way you can think of**


	8. Chapter 8

As Nick opened the door to his living room he could see the rain running down the windows. For a moment he just stood there, listening to the peaceful drumming sound of the rain beating against the window. Since he was a pup he both loved and hated the rain.

He liked it because while raining the sun was hidden behind the clouds, dimming the light and helping him to see. Sometimes it really was a handicap to be a nocturnal animal. During a bright and sunny day, he easily got a headache thanks to his sensitive eyes and his sunglasses weren't helping very well so he enjoyed the twilight of a rainy or cloudy day.

On the opposite of course was the fact that there was nothing more annoying than wet fox fur. Once soaked it took hours to get it dry again without a fur dryer, and it wasn't like these things were standing around everywhere. Of course he had one standing in his bathroom but wouldn't help him if he was sitting at the precinct completely soaked.

After a few moments of standing in the door, lost in thoughts and starring out of the window, Nick remembered that he was already late and hurried to get over his morning routine. He didn't bother switching on the light, in fact he never switched it on when he was alone. It saved him money and he didn't actually need it anyway thanks to his night vision.

A quick look at the clock told him that he better should get going and with a last look out of the window he took his police cap and headed down to his car.

The streets of Zootopia were stuffed with cars like every morning but in his opinion driving through the city with roughly 5 mph in his own car was more comfortable then being pushed around in a train alongside dozens of other mammals. Another perk of having a car was that he wouldn't get soaked while waiting for a train or bus to arrive and of course he never could oversleep and miss it.

After a quick stop to get coffee, two cups of vanilla coffee with sugar because this was Judy's favorite and over time Nick grew to also like it, he slowly made his way in the direction of Judy's apartment which was located right between his own and the precinct.

It wasn't pure kindness that Nick offered his partner to pick her up every day. In return Judy was a reliable alarm clock because every morning his phone began to ring and Judy would only stop sending him text messages or calling him when he responded, which meant oversleeping was impossible. He thought back to that one time he forgot to pick her up a few weeks ago and a smile began to creep over his muzzle as he remembered that day.

He had to stay a few days at the precinct during his training at the academy which itself was quite boring, of course seeing and getting used to the work which needs to be done at a precinct was important, but back then it was just boring because he had done paperwork, and paperwork only, back then. During this time Judy discovered that it was way more comfortable to drive with Nick to the precinct in the morning, but on that one day he overslept.

Because he was late he took an alternate route and missed his waiting partner which he realized as soon as his phone suddenly exploded because of all the incoming messages and missed calls. Obviously Judy had been quite mad at him as she was finally sitting beside him but that was nothing compared to the look the Chief had given them as they finally made it to the station an hour late. To summarize it, this day hadn't been his most successful but since then Judy made a reliable alarm clock and that was not bad at all.

While he was slowly driving though the city, his thoughts drifted off towards their last case and what he would do to help Clara with her mysterious depts. He sensed something was odd there, Mr. Big wouldn't suddenly start playing loan shark for some simple citizens or at least Nick couldn't believe that he would. Nick would have to talk with the mole and besides, Judy still was the godmother of Fru Fru's little daughter and it already had been a few weeks since their last visit. But of course they couldn't just drive there just like that during their worktime, especially not when they were officially assigned elsewhere.

He remembered the interrogation with Clara and how hopeful she looked as he promised her to help her. And of course he remembered what happened after that. Normally he wasn't the emotional type of mammal but he guessed the lack of sleep and the stressful last two days strained him more then he wanted to admit.

He stopped thinking about it as he saw Judy standing in front of the apartment building she lived in already fully dressed in her police uniform which definitely suited her pretty well. She looked attractive no doubt about that and the smile in her face as she saw him closing in fitted her appearance just fine.

Yeah she looked good.

For a bunny.

Seriously he needed to stop thinking like that of her. She already gave him to understand that she wasn't interested in him that night and it nearly ruined the friendship between them only because of his stupidity. He was glad that she couldn't remember that night. He needed to get over it as soon as possible before he would do something stupid.

 _Again_ he added to his own thought. Maybe Cindy could help him, she always wanted to give him a second chance. Or more precise she wouldn't give him a second chance but his m…

"Morning Nick, slept well?"

Shocked he turned his head only to find Judy sitting on the passenger seat beside him. What was going on? He looked around only to realize that he parked his car at the usual spot between the two huge cars her weird Neighbors possessed. It seemed that he just parked the car while he was lost in thought, even his paw was already extended with the coffee in it.

"Thanks"

With that she took the coffee from him either not noticing or minding his confused look. because as he finally started the car again, still looking slightly distracted, she only sipped at her coffee.

...

The duo was sitting at their usual place in the first row right in front of the Chief and listened to him handing out the assignments for this day. As usual Chief Bogo mentioned them as the last team and the three of them were already the only ones in the room as he gave them the details. The precinct located in tundra town was shorthanded and so they, as the only unassigned officers right now, had to head over there as soon as possible and help out until the locale officers were back on duty again.

"Can you believe that carrots? Right now where we need to go there anyway, this happens." Nick said as he was entering his car again and began driving towards the gigantic wall which separated savanna central from the other districts.

"Sure but don't forget that we still have duty Nick. If they have an assignment for us, we have to do that instead of visiting Mr. Big."

"Of course carrots, there is no way we possibly could drive there during our valuable worktime. I think I'll just spent one day of my precious Weekend driving there again."

"Oh come on its not like you have any own plans for your weekend Nick"

"How could you possibly say something like that fluff? As a matter of fact, I really do have some plans for this weekend" Nick tried to act offended.

"Oh really? I'm glad because I forgot to tell you but I'll visit my parents for the weekend so sadly I won't be here to keep you entertained"

"Let me guess fluff, you still work alone?"

An awkward silence started to spread between them.

"… Yes Nick. I still haven't told them." And almost too quick to understand for Nick she added "But as I already told you I'll do it as soon as possible"

Nick wasn't pleased as he heard that his partner still hadn't told her parents about his existence. He couldn't understand what was so difficult about that but obviously it must be pretty damn hard to tell your overprotective parents that you've found someone who has your back every second, as a police officer and as a friend.

But thinking about that wouldn't do him any good and as Judy asked him something else in order to switch topics he took the chance to get away from the depressive and towards some light up-to-date topics.

The morning traffic slowly disappeared so that Nick and Judy were already standing in front of the tundra town precinct only half an hour later. In the other districts the rain still poured down from the sky but thanks to the environmental regulating systems, or short ERS, which were especially designed for Zootopia and build inside the giant walls it wasn't raining. Around them millions of snowflakes were dancing through the air and slowly gliding down to the ground. It sure would've been beautiful to stand there and watch the snow crystals slowly making their way down to the surface but the low temperature caused both of them to start shivering in their police uniforms so they hurried to get inside the building.

Inside it wasn't much warmer but at least they were protected from the wind outside which was something so they walked across the entrance hall towards the information stand from where a snow leopard in a police uniform stared at them with a bewildered look.

Nick gave him his best fake smile as they reached the stand and asked where they should get their assignments. The leopard looked like he wasn't sure if Nick just told him a bad joke but as no one started laughing after some moments he sighed and, with an unfriendly voice, explained how they could get to the Chief's office.

"What a nice greeting" Judy sarcastically said as they were away far enough for the leopard to hear them.

"Could have been worse carrots"

"oh yeah? How?"

A typical Nick smile appeared on his muzzle and Judy immediately regretted asking that question.

"Imagine he would have recognized you from your awesome little videos" He answered "Maybe I can show some to him so that he knew exactly who he just sent away without asking for an autograph. Maybe he would even apology to you".

Judy knew these videos the precinct recorded with her would never be forgotten by Nick but at least she could try it once again.

"Oh come on Nick, this is getting old. Can't we just forget about it?"

"not gonna happen, but that was a nice try fluff. Maybe next time you can act a bit more annoyed instead of smiling. I know you can do it, we both know how amazing your acting skills are"

Judy sighed and gave it up. Nick would never forget about those pesky little videos and to be completely honest, a part of her didn't even want him to do so because Nick wouldn't be Nick if he wouldn't tease her with such things. After a walk of roughly three minutes through the frosty building they reached the chiefs office.

"DON'T TELL ME YOU CAN'T FIND HIM EITHER?! I'M SUROUNDED BY FREAKIN' IDIOTS" a voice suddenly echoed through the closed door with a volume that even matched Bogo's.

"maybe being able to yell like that is a required skill for becoming a Chief Officer" Nick joked as he saw Judy's startled expression. In the same moment the door opened and two officers, a wolf and a moose, were coming out with similar frightened faces. After they disappeared behind them Judy, with a quick look to Nick, reached out and knocked on the still slightly open door.

"Yeah? Come in" they could hear the same deep but now calm voice speak. Without another word they both entered the office and closed the door behind them.

The office was about the same height as the one Chief Bogo had, big enough to let any kind of mammal there was in Zootopia fit in but still small enough that it looked too uncomfortable for staying in there longer than a few hours. Thinking about similarities Nick thought, the next thing that was the same in both offices was a huge mammal angrily glaring at him and waiting for him to explain himself only this time it wasn't a water buffalo but a polar bear. The effect was the same, he simply couldn't stand it when a mammal stared at him trying to overpower him mentally with its appearance. But before he could say something the polar bear began to speak.

"And who are you?" he asked with a stern but calm voice, exactly the same voice Bogo used when trying to restrain his inner fury, usually this was the moment Nick would say something to challenge him and Bogo would explode and start yelling. However, this time he was to slow because Judy was already about to answer.

"We are the officers sent from savanna central"

"I asked Bogo to send me his most capable officers, not whatever you two are" The second Bogo, as Nick decided to name him that very moment, stated and was about to start reading some reports which were lying on his desk.

"I really don't want to brag but I think that would be us Chief" Judy started another try. With a sight the Polar bear looked back up at her, rather annoyance then interest in his look.

"Listen, bunny. We have got some real problems around here so what about you go back there and tell Bogo he better should send me some real officers." And without a further word he began reading the reports and ignoring Judy completely.

There were lots of things Nick didn't mind. If someone distrusted him because he was a fox for example or when the chief was yelling at him because of improper behavior against authority. One thing that he definitely did mind was when someone was about to threaten the dreams of his partner.

Maybe because he did it himself back then when they first mat and he felt guilty about it, maybe because he couldn't stand that expression she got back then which had been the exact same she had just now. outward she pretended to be angry but if you would take your time to look a bit more carefully you would see how insecure and hurt she was right now. He didn't know what it was but it triggered something deep inside him and suddenly his mouth spoke on its own.

"What about a deal? You let us handle this problem you've got there and I promise you we'll solve it until tomorrow. If not, we will do as you just suggested and go back to both tell Bogo that we are nothing but stupid tiny mammals and that he better should sent real cops next time"

He immediately knew he just may have dug both their graves as he saw Judy's terrified face, which was nothing compared to the diabolic smile the Chief gave him.

"Deal" he simply stated and handed them a file without a further word. They both sat there waiting for further details but the polar bear sat behind the desk focusing on the reports again. After a full minute Judy finally tried to breack the silence.

"Sir, what about further details about this problem if I may ask?"

"such skilled officers like you surely are able to find a way to gain all the information they need" The polar bear stated "you are free to go and start working".

"Well then…" Judy sounded unsure but stood up and hopped down from the chair. Nick on the other hand didn't want to go out of this room. Not because he was afraid of this mysterious problem they had to solve now but what Judy would do with him as soon as he would be alone with her, although he probably earned whatever she had in store for him. With a sight he also stood up and followed her out of the room.

As he turned around towards her after closing the door he suddenly had a hard time not tripping as a tiny grey paw grabbed his tie and pulled him into a direction. After some time, Judy found an empty room entered it turned towards Nick and pulled down the tie she still held, forcing his head down to her height so that there was nearly no space between their faces.

"what. exactly. were. you. thinking?" she slowly asked with a dangerously calm voice.

"could you please let go of my tie carrots? You're choking me" he managed to say but as a respond Judy simply pulled even harder. "Alright alright, I wasn't thinking okay?" he croaked. With a sight she let go of his tie and shook her head.

"I'm serious Nick why did you do this?" she asked again but this time without the deadly undertone in her voice.

"I don't know carrots. I think I just didn't like how he was talking with you that's all"

"So every time in the future someone is not nice to me you just will say something incredibly stupid?" at least she wasn't really mad at him, Nick thought. Else she wouldn't be able to joke right now, or at least he hoped that conclusion was right. He never witnessed Judy really angry but he just hoped for the best.

"But of course that's my duty as your favorite partner isn't it?"

"Dumb fox" She sighed "Anyway, looks like we have to solve this now so let's have a look". She opened the case file and quickly looked over it. In the meantime, Nick straightened his tie and waited for Judy to finish reading.

"Nick, care to explain how you managed to do this?" She suddenly asked and looked at him amused.

"Don't know carrots. Care to fill me in?"

"This case is about a mysterious loan shark, there are ten victims and most of them are too frightened telling the police anything. The ones who were brave enough stated that they lent money from someone who calls himself Mr. Big"

"See carrots? I'm simply amazing" Nick chuckled.

"Alright, here we have the officers in charge let's try and find them first. We need to know what they've got. Then I think we'll visit my cute little goddaughter"

they walked back to the entrance hall and asked the still unfriendly Snow leopard where they could find said officers. Minutes later they finally found the right room, according to the sign at the door.

"Jeez carrots, these two surely are some high ranked officers. They even got their own office, not even _we_ got something like that 'till now" Nick stated with an appreciative whistle. Although Judy silently agreed with him she knocked instead of answering Nick.

"Yeah?" came a male voice from behind the door and as Judy opened it she saw the same two officers who walked out of the chief's office back then as they arrived. After her Nick entered the room and also recognizing the two mammals who were now starring at them confused.

"Aaand you are?" The wolf asked and his eyes switched between Nick and Judy.

"Officer Judy Hopps, and this is my partner Officer Nick Wilde." Judy explained. "It seems like we are here to help you with your case." She added as the questioning look of the light gray wolf didn't vanish.

"Oh is that so? Alright then I'm Stan and this is Carl, my partner" The wolf introduced himself and the moose who lazily raised a paw to a greeting gesture as Stan mentioned his name.

"So how exactly do you think you two could be able to help us, this case is hopeless." Stan began to explain. "I'm certain you already know everything which stands in this file in your paw and sadly that's everything we know as well" He finished with a sigh.

"So all you know is that someone out there is running around ripping off mammals and calling himself Mr. Big?" Judy tried to clarify.

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up"

"Okay … have you got any Idea where we could find him?" Nick questioned.

"That's the problem. We know where he is in fact he is a well-known criminal, at least around here. But trying to rush in there and arrest him would be suicide."

"You know what? You leave that part to the two of us and we catch the one who is behind all this for you until tomorrow" Both Stan and Carl's eyes grew wide in disbelief as they listened to Nick. And after a quick exchange of looks Stan cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"This might sound a bit offensive now but I don't think the two of you'll be able to handle this. No offense, but not even the door guards at his mansion are impressed by a whole squad of police officers sooo…."

"As my partner said, you can leave this part to us. see you guys tomorrow" Judy stated and, with an impish wink, turned around and walked out of the room with Nick right behind her.

"You think we'll see them again?" Stan asked with a questioning look in Carl's direction after Nick closed the door.

"Naa man, these guys are dead" The moose responded with a shrug and focused his attention back to his computer.

* * *

 **Hey there guys (and girls). Glad to be active again, have some of you missed me? however here I am once more ready to continue this little story. I have a new plan now which hopefully helps me posting chapters more often. also I tried to improve me writing skills (Did it work?). As usual let me know what you think through reviews comments PM and any other possible way.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey there, I know I kept you waiting far too long and I'm sorry. But don't be afraid! I'm still alive and I assure you I'll continue with the next chapter asap. Thanks for being so patient and still waiting here. But now without any further disrutions I present you the next chapter, have fun.**

* * *

For a short time Nick could see a suspicious look flash over the face of the polar bear guard as he drove towards the giant door leading to mansion. They discussed that topic for a while but driving back to each of their apartments only to change cloths would waste too much time so they drove here straight from the precinct. As Nick's car came to a stop in front of the gate, the frown of the guard had already been replaced by a polite expression.

"May I ask for the purpose of your visit officers?" He asked. The mammal was new, that much Nick could tell. Usually everyone around here knew them, he must've started working for mr. Big during the few weeks between their last visit and now.

"Since when are you working here?" Nick asked with a typical _Nick smile_ as Judy would call it.

"two weeks by now. May I know the purpose of your visit now?" The polar bear kept his patience like he probably had been taught in one of the courses all knew Bodyguards of the old mole had to absolve.

"Alright you know what? We have some business with your Boss and as you can see we're both police officers and if you don't want to get arrested then you better open this gate right now"

"Do you have a search warrant?" The guard immediately asked, still no reaction on his face.

"Listen pal, I'm the kind of officer who doesn't need a warrant for doing anything so you either let me talk to your boss right now or I will make sure you will sit behind bars the rest of your goddamn life." And although Nick tried his best to sound as threatening as he could, and he was good at playing badass, the guard's face didn't even twitch.

"Jeez Nick stop teasing this poor mammal" Judy's voice interrupted them.

"Wait, your name is Nick? As in Nicholas Wilde?" the eyes of the guard grew wide.

"That's me, you can just call me Nick though. And this is Judy Hopps, my partner and may I mention that you did just fine, staying calm and polite" Nick complimented with amused look on his face as he saw the guard's reaction.

"I'm terribly sorry mister Wilde right this way, I'll just open the gate for you" The embarrassed guard apologized and hurried to open the gate for them.

"Please just call me Nick" Nick sighted as they drove the long driveway to the actual mansion. He hated it being called Mister Wilde, it sounded way to official for him to like it.

"Why? I think Mister Wilde sounds cute" Judy giggled.

With a disapproving grumbling sound Nick parked the car. Immediately after Judy got out of it a polar bear stood in front of them and asked them to follow him. Sometimes Judy wondered how many of them where actually working here. As nice and friendly as the old mole was, he also was a bit paranoid. Wherever she looked Judy could see at least three guards standing around and looking grim. But being the crime boss of Zootopia surely wasn't that easy and there surely were a lot of mammals that wanted to see the tiny mole dead so a little paranoia could quite help staying alive. It was still irritating though.

"OOHHHHH JUUUUDDDDIIIIII!" a high pitched voice suddenly echoed out of the corridor they just passed.

"I'll catch up to you later" Judy stated and turned around to follow Fru Fru's voice inside the room to their right. It had been a few weeks since she saw Fru Fru and with an excited smile she disappeared into the room to meet her.

The polar bear brought Nick to the same room in which they met the mole during the missing mammal case. The rug covering the hole Mr. Big used for icing mammals had been replaced but besides that everything looked exactly the same even the guards who were standing around could've been the same, but Nick wasn't sure about that they all looked kind of equal to him. Kozlov, Mr. Big's oldest henchman and his personal Bodyguard, was again sitting behind the large table and in front of him, in his tiny chair, there were Mr. Big himself sitting and already awaiting Nick.

"Welcome home Nicky, it's been a while since your last visit" the tiny mammal said and raised his hands into a welcoming gesture. Nick crossed the room until he was standing right in front of the crime boss and although it was quite difficult he managed to shake the mammal's extended paw.

"What should I say, working for the other side is quite time consuming. Especially if you work together with someone like Judy"

"Ahh yes, Judy. Such an energetic young thing. Where is she?"

"She came along but I'm afraid your daughter found her first"

Mr. Big smiled, or at least Nick believed it was a smile. Sometimes the size difference between the different races was really annoying. Anyway, the mole seemed to be in a good mood today and Nick still had to ask something.

"But sadly I'm here as a police officer too today" The guards standing around straightened themselves but Nick ignored them. He knew that their only purpose were to scare of unwelcomed visitors.

"Soo?" The mole raised a tiny eyebrow after he gestured the guards to relax again.

"Have you and your … organization been active in the past few weeks?" Nick asked.

"Of course we were Nicky. You know better than anyone what we have to do every day to keep everything running here in Zootopia"

"No I don't mean that stuff. I mean active like maybe blackmailing some mammals?"

"Nicky. You worked here for almost ten years. My mother raised you and I taught you everything I know. You should know better than ask me such a question"

"I'm sorry, I had to ask. I guess you already heard about the loan shark already?" Nick hoped the mole didn't already find whoever the criminal was. As noble Mr. Big's mafia acted it still was what it was, a criminal organization and this tiny mammal wasn't the mafia don of Zootopia without reason. The hole beneath the rug Nick stood on, or more specific the countless claw marks at the edges of it, were prove of that.

"Yes, I heard about that … unfortunate incident" the mole replied and shook his head. "And I promise you I'll find whoever is responsible for that. Nobody can act under my name and get away with it".

"And that's exactly why I'm here. You see a few mammals were brave enough to come to us and now there is an official case regarding a loan shark who calls himself Mr. Big" again the guards got ready to take action if needed, and again Mr. Big calmed them down with a quick gesture.

"Do I need to worry about something?" the mole asked with a calm voice.

"Not at all, the officers in charge didn't dare to come here. Now Judy and I are the two helping them, so as you can see everything is fine" Nick explained.

"I guess you want me to hand out the mammal to you as soon as I find him?"

"That would be nice, he also should be still breathing when we get him. Just to prevent any misunderstandings" The mole smiled slightly again.

"Sure, sure. But now that we discussed that how were you doing all this time?" and soon the two of them were talking about all sorts of Things.

...

It already was evening as Nick and Judy finally walked inside the tundra town precinct again. It took them a few minutes to find the way back to the office of the two officers they officially worked with on that case.

"Carl, look who is still alive" Stan announced as soon as the team entered the room.

"Of course we are still alive" Judy smiled.

"So? Didn't you guys promise to bring the criminal here too?" Carl asked.

"Just wait a few hours and you won't be disappointed, I promise" Nick answered the moose and smiled conspiratorially.

"Ok, I guess?" Stan and Carl both looked confused but as Judy claimed that she and Nick were finished here and that they would head home now, they just accepted it.

…

Judy saw the entrance of the tunnel connecting tundra town with savanna central and after all this time she still felt slightly amazed as she saw the high wall. When she first came to Zootopia and saw the huge walls she had been amazed that someone could build something like that and with every district and climatic zone she passed back then, her amazement had been growing. She still felt slightly excited every time she passed through the walls and whenever she rides the train back after visiting her family in the burrows her heart skipped a beat when she saw the view of the different districts and the typical giant walls of Zootopia. Sure Zootopia wasn't perfect but despite all the flaws it may have, Judy still was proud to be part of it and that she could try to protect the city every single day.

"there is a new restaurant near my apartment, like to try it?" Nick asked out of the blue.

"Sure" It was always fun doing something with him and getting to try out something new was even better. Although she wanted to get out of her uniform and into something more comfortable first. "Could you drive me home though? I need to get out of the uniform".

An agreeing hum came from the driver seat and as they were close to her apartment they agreed to meet at his apartment in about an hour.

...

With a sighed Judy opened the door to her tiny apartment. It had been a long day, talking with Fru Fru and playing with her little child. Although the little baby mole was incredibly cute with her big eyes, it also was incredibly hard for Judy to hold and play with her without accidently hurting the fragile body of the little girl.

But there was something more important than thinking about her day 'till now, in barely an hour she should be at Nick's apartment and she needed twenty minutes for walking there which meant she had about thirty minutes left to get ready.

She considered taking a shower but tossed the thought away quickly, without a furdryer there was no way she would get her fur dry in time. She got out of her uniform and after hanging it to the other two sets she possessed a thought suddenly struck her and her mind went blank for a few moments.

What should she wear?

At first she thought about just wearing something casual, a t-shirt and a pair of jeans should do, but then doubts began dwelling inside her. What if Nick would wear something good-looking? At first she found the idea ridiculous, why would Nick do that? And yet she couldn't stop worrying about it. It would be embarrassing for her to sit there in casual cloths while Nick on the opposite would wear something more … official. Suddenly she imagined Nick standing in front of her in a suit and for a moment the word handsome popped up in her mind. With an embarrassed blush she shook her head and sighed.

Nick would be the same as ever there was no reason to doubt that. And yet she was still standing in front of her wardrobe and trying to figure out what she should wear. Why was she even worried about something like that? It wasn't like he would care anyway so what were the big deal?

After a few minutes she looked at her phone only to find out that she had been standing in front of her wardrobe thinking about this evening and Nick for the past fifteen minutes. What was wrong with her? With a frown she grabbed a t-shirt and closed the dresser.

Only to open it again, putting the shirt back in and instead taking out the dark blue dress beside it. She bought it a few weeks ago but since now there weren't the occasion to wear something fancy like that. What harm could it bring, she thought and hurried to get ready.

Once again she wondered how Nick got an apartment like this as she entered the building and walked over to the elevator. There was no way he could afford it with the salary they got as police officers, he could've got it thanks to a friend though Judy thought. Nick himself mentioned all the time that he knew everybody and it was simple to imagine how he sweet talked a friend of him into lending him this awesome place. A smile spread over her face as she imagined how he could've done this. Although she herself would never tolerate something like that it indeed was hilarious listening to Nick when he told her one of the stories about his former life as a con artist. this times were pretty rare though and whenever she asked him something he only talked vague about it or even changed the topic completely.

"On my way" She could hear Nick through the door after she knocked. Shortly afterwards the door opened and in front of her stood Nick.

Only on the edge she noticed his dark blue shirt and the black pair of jeans he was wearing or the intense look he gave her.

Unlike her, Nick apparently had enough time for a quick shower and it also looked like he possessed a furdryer, and did he comb himself? Whatever he did, the outcome was breathtaking. His orange fur looked like silk and for a moment Judy considered simply hugging Nick only to get the chance to bury her face inside this smooth and comfy looking pelt. She could feel her cheeks heat up and she thanked god that she decided to go with the dress so that she at least didn't look too underdressed. She didn't even notice the look Nick gave her or the period of time he was just standing there staring at her before saying something.

"I must admit officer Hopps, this dress suits you" she barely heard his compliment as she was still paralyzed. _Say something you idiot_! Her inner voice screamed at her and this time it had a terrifying similarity with the voice of the drill sergeant at the police academy.

"Th … thanks" She managed to squeeze out. Really now? All she could say was a stumbled ' _thanks_ '? _Pull over it dammit_ a voice in her head shouted once more _it's just Nick after all_.

"You … you look … not so bad either" _Ohh nice, reaallly smooth. Well done_ the voice echoed through her mind sarcastically. What the hell was wrong with her? It wasn't the first time she saw Nick like this. _But this time he did it just for you_ another voice took part at the silent conversation inside her and the realization hit her like a truck. A truck made of smooth orange fur with giant emerald-green eyes. _Alright that was enough snap out of it_ the tiny drill sergeant inside her screamed and finally she regained the control over her body again.

"I still need a minute, come in" Nick stated and disappeared into his apartment. With a deep breath Judy followed Nick. This was going be way more difficult than expected.

The restaurants inner facilities looked nice and friendly but the best part was that the whole opposite side of the building was made from one single wall of glass. Kinda like Nicks apartment Judy thought. The only difference was that now there was not the skyline of the city behind it, but a park and right now the lights in said park turned on and flooded the whole place in a greenish and beautiful light. From where they stood Judy couldn't see a single source of light directly, only the shine of it which gave the whole scene a kind of a mystic touch. Judy admired the view so much that she didn't even see the waiter and his bewildered face at first.

"Excuse me Sir, I'm afraid this establishment only serves vegetarian dishes"

"I know" Nick said with a smile and just stared at the waiter, who, after a few moments of staring back, got uncomfortable and guided them to a table at the far end of the restaurant right beside the glass wall.

"Soo, why exactly are we here?" Judy asked after the waiter was gone to get their drinks. She couldn't think of any valid reason why Nick would knowingly choose a vegetarian restaurant.

"Huh? To have a nice evening of course, what else should we do here?"

"No, I mean why are we _here_ Nick? In a vegetarian restaurant?"

"I already said that carrots, its new and I wanted to try it" He explained casually like it was the most common thing in the world.

"Nick, skip it. You're a fox so what are we doing here?" Nick tilted his head to a side and gave her a short thinking look. Judy had seen that look before, he was considering if he should tell her whatever he was about to tell her or if it was saver to say nothing. She hated it when he did that, it gave her the feeling that he didn't trust her and that and locked her out again like he did it with everybody else.

"Now that I think about it, I actually never saw you eating meat Nick" She added and hoped that this would bring him to just tell whatever he was thinking, and maybe because she really was curious about his explanation now.

"That's because I don't eat meat" He stated.

Judy was confused, Nick was a fox which meant he was a carnivore after all. He had to eat meat in order to stay healthy. It would literally kill himself if he would try to only eat vegetables for too long. It was the same as she would start eating meat regularly beside that in her opinion eating insects and bugs really was gross.

"Nick, you're a fox. You have to eat meat" She explained confused.

"Maybe saying I don't eat meat was a bit over the top. Of course I eat it occasionally, but that doesn't mean that I enjoy it. I don't like the taste." He replied as the waiter came back to take their orders.

"You don't want to tell me the real reason do you?" She tried once more as the waiter was disappeared again.

"Listen carrots, why don't we talk about something else okay?"

"As you wish" Judy sighed and took a look around. Only now she realized some mammals around them were giving them disapproving, some even angry or disgusted looks. Maybe they are just not used to the sight of a fox inside a vegetarian restaurant Judy thought and tried to ignore them.

The food was delicious, the view beautiful and the company entertaining as always. Time flew and soon they were standing in front of the building again and the cool air already began creeping under Judy's fur. Nick offered to walk with her back to her apartment and soon they were wandering through the now illuminated Zootopia. Judy could hear a steady mix of noises in the background, unlike back in the burrows where it was peaceful and quiet most of the time. She loved both, the peaceful silence from her hometown and the never ending stream of noises from Zootopia which gave her the feeling that this city was alive somehow.

After a few minutes her phone suddenly disrupted the calming and steady stream of sounds coming from all around them. Damn it, she totally forgot that it was already the time for her parents to call her like they did almost every evening. She gestured Nick to keep quiet and hit the green button.

"Hey guys" She held the phone in front of her while she was still walking so that her parents could see her.

"Judy, what happened?" her mother asked and her voice sounded excited.

"What do you mean?"

"Since when do you wear dresses?"

"Ohh that, no that's just … I tried out a new restaurant with … a friend of mine" She explained with a quick look to Nick, who just rolled his eyes and let a disapproving frown slip. She knew what she did was unfair but she just couldn't bring herself to tell her parents about him, maybe she was just afraid that they wouldn't accept him as her friend, she knew it was dumb but she couldn't help it. They were the ones giving her the fox repellent and they did so for a reason.

"Is there someone else with you?" Her mother asked suddenly and Judy realized she was still looking at Nick. With a shake of her head she turned back

"Ahh, no sorry I was … there was just ahh … nevermind. How is it going back home?"

"Wait, does that mean you're alone out there right now dressed like that?" Stu, her father, asked and his nose already started twitching concerned.

"Don't worry about me dad, I still am a police officer you know. I think I can take care of myself"

"You can't be careful enough Judy. There might be some predators just around the corner at such a time, especially foxes. You know that these shifty mammals are nocturnal, you still have the FoxAway Spray I gave you, don't you?"

"Dad!" Judy screamed out indignantly "Not every fox has to be evil, may I remember you that Gideon also is one?"

"That's something different and you know that. And even he attacked you when he was young!"

"We were kids Dad, and he just had a difficult youth. How would you feel growing up with anyone around you hating you for what you be?" They had this conversation a few times before and every single time her father brought up the same arguments. These arguments were another reason she hadn't found the chance to tell her parents about Nick by now. But not now, right now Judy had other problems she realized with another look to Nick who now walked at a steady pace, staring straight forward with a blank look.

"I'm sorry dad, but I don't really have much time to talk right now, I'll call you again tomorrow ok? Bye!" And without waiting for a response she hung up.

They were walking in silence, Judy looked at her friend occasionally but Nicks face didn't change. _At least he still is here_ she thought and tried to stay positive. After a few minutes she couldn't bear it any longer.

"Nick, please say something". No reaction

"Come on Nick, you can't just walk here like nothing happened". His face remained blank

"Listen Nick I'm sorry. I'm really sorry that this just happened." Not a single muscle in his face moved

"Goddammit Nick say something. Get angry, scream at me, turn around and walk away, DO SOMETHING PLEASE!" She raised her voice in despair.

Slowly, like he had to force every muscle individually, his expression changed and a sad look appeared on his face. Finally, after an eternity it seemed for Judy, he sighed and opened his muzzle

"Let's just forget about it" he quietly stated. The shocking thing for Judy wasn't that he didn't want to talk about it. That was quite normal for him. The frightening thing was the defeat she could hear in his voice. She never heard him talking like this before and a feeling of uneasiness crept over her.

"I won't _just forget about_ that Nick. What you heard just now wasn't … I mean they didn't …" she struggled to find the right words "They don't know you Nick. When the time comes, they will realize what a kind and nice mammal you are, I promise!"

"Sure" he simply replied. "And what's the deal with this Gideon? What's so special about him?" This question took Judy by surprise. All the things he just heard and this was the most important question to ask her? But gladly she took the chance to talk with Nick and told him about her youth and Gideon.

"Sounds like this guy is a real asshole" Nick commented after Judy finished just in time as they turned around the last corner. She already could see the wooden door to her apartment building.

"Nah he changed over time. He isn't that bad now. In fact, he is the only baker in bunnyburrow right now and he is working with my parents."

"Oh so that's why he isn't one of us" Nick did like he just realized something important.

" _One of us_?"

"We, the shifty, filthy and dangerous foxes" Nick explained but Judy failed to notice the subtle playful tone in is voice.

"Nick I already told you that I'm sorry. I'm sure they'll like you once they get to know you" She tried to reassure him.

"And whose fault is it that they don't already do?" He added with an amused look down to Judy who didn't noticed it.

"I know, I know. It's totally and only my fault and I'm a dumb bunny. No need to mention it "she sighed as they stopped in front of the door.

…

It was already half past eleven when Judy finally was lying on her bed inside her tiny apartment. Although she only was halfway through the week Judy already felt exhausted. Hopefully the next few days would be less eventful as the last few had been. Once this week was over on the other hand, she could enjoy two peaceful days back in her hometown. She thought about her family and the beautiful landscape of bunnyburrow. Slowly her thoughts drifted off towards Nick and the events of the past evening.

* * *

 **So how was it? Let me know your thoughts and I promise I'll get the next chapter done within the next week.**


	10. Chapter 10

It was a rather normal morning at the precinct. The steady mix of sounds coming from everywhere, a still half asleep fox with his head on the table, trying to cover his ears while holding a cup of coffee like his life depended on it and Judy sitting in front of her pc filing a report, when the phone standing beside her rang.

Once she hung up again she could hear a muffled "Whowhoaaasthat?" coming from the pile of orange fur to her right.

"Stan, looks like they found our "Mr. Big" in front of the precinct this morning. He said that they'll bring him over because there was a problem with interrogating him"

"Problem?" came the still muffled response but know there were two ears on top of the pile of fur pointing towards her.

"He only wants to talk with you". Nick's head slowly rose from the table, his normally sleepy look slowly being replaced by curiosity and after a few moments he didn't look even remotely tired. _So much for not being able to get up at morning_ Judy thought but as Nick asked why the culprit wanted to meet him personally she only could shrug with her shoulders.

"The only things he said were 'I only talk to Officer Wilde' and 'please take me to him' according to Stan so drink your coffee and get ready".

…

It was the same room in which Clara sat two days before. The same grey color everywhere, like the room itself was suffering under a depression and wanted everybody who entered to see it. The only different thing in this sea of grey was the orange-brown color of the fox who was sitting in it and staring directly at the mirrored glass in front of him. Unlike Nick this fox's fur had a more brownish shade, almost like it was dirty Judy thought as she stood behind said glass and watched the criminal in the other room. She felt like he was directly looking at her which, of course, was technically impossible and yet the stare coming from his blue eyes was so intense that she couldn't help it but feel a shiver running down her spine.

"I heard you wanted to talk to me" Nick entered the interrogation room and Judy felt relief wash over her like someone lifted a weight from her chest as Nick drew the attention of the fox on himself.

"Yes, that's true" the other fox broke the silence and one side of his muzzle twitched as he indicated a smile. "Please" He gestured to the chair in front of him, an odd smile on his face "have a seat Officer".

Instead of taking the offered seat, Nick calmly walked around the table and positioned himself on top of it so that he was sitting right beside the culprit.

"Who told you my name?" he asked. Instead of answering him instantly, the other fox rotated the chair so that he was facing Nick directly again before opening his muzzle to let out a slight laugh.

"You're too modest Officer. There is still a little fame you and your family have left from the old days"

"Yeah … who are you?" Nick switched the topic but his voice cooled down now.

"Just a friend." The criminal stated and a daydreaming smile appeared on his face.

"Is that what you wanted to talk about?" Nick responded and at his words the fox suddenly began to change. It was hardly visible at the beginning, something about his look or the way he sat in his chair.

"No. You're right, this isn't the right time for that" the false mr. Big stated. He took a long time just looking at Nick and also the mirrored glass before starting to speak. "As a matter of fact I wanted to warn you … and your partner over there" he added with a gesture of his head towards the mirrored glass.

"… Warn me" Nick sounded skeptical.

"Yes. There is something going on out there. I couldn't figure out what exactly it is but I know that they got their men everywhere so don't let your guard down Officer".

"And why did you want to talk to _me_ in particular?" Nick was still skeptical. This story sounded far-fetched and at this point he was sure that the fox wasn't telling them the truth.

"I wanted you because you are the most trustworthy" The fox instantly answered.

"The most trustworthy?"

"As I said, as far as I know they have their people everywhere including the police".

"Who are _they?_ "

"I don't know. They are the one who ordered me to imitate mr. Big for some reason. I don't know who they are, or what their intention is" the fox's blank face was replaced by worry "But I do now what'll happen if they find out that I just told you that".

…

"Do you believe him?" Judy asked as Nick entered the room.

"You mean about these mysterious guys?" Nick asked back and there still was a sceptic hint in his voice. Judy herself had doubts, the story sounded just like lots of other's she had heard. There often was a shady mammal included who told the real criminal to rob this store or steal that car and of course the police should, instead of arresting the primary criminal, search for the mysterious villain behind it and eventually let the poor victims go. The first few times she took it seriously only to eventually realize that another laugh from her colleagues and an angry look from the chief was all what she got out of that.

"I don't know. At least he looks like he is believing it, I mean have you seen his face as he said this last thing?"

"Well, we can discuss this later. First of all we need to lock him up and get the task done the chief gave us. I don't want to be on his bad side again". It hadn't been long since the last time Nick and the chief had a fight and Judy wanted to keep the peace between them at least for the rest of the week before they would get a shift during the weekend and she could forget her trip back home.

"Sure, because nothing is more important than patrolling through savanna central" Nick stated with a sarcastic tone as he held the door open for her.

"Alright, we'll bring you to your cell now. You'll stay there until your lawsuit" with these words Nick entered the interrogation room once more, closely followed by Judy. As the brownish fox saw the rabbit, his expression changed once more. Instead of the odd smile, he now had a spark of something else in his eyes as he saw her. With one swift move he stood up and was walking over to her, ignoring the warning growls Nick gave him.

"I don't think we had the pleasure to meet before Officer. So, nice to meet you" He calmly said and stretched out a paw. In surprise Judy's paw acted automatic as she replied the handshake.

"uuhh… likewise, I guess" She stumbled.

"I don't think we'll meet again so let me give you both an advice" The fox said with a look back at Nick. "You two are in danger. They've got their people everywhere so don't trust anyone … except the real government" he added with a look back to Judy.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Judy had to ask. She couldn't get rid of the feeling that this fox was hiding something.

"I'm afraid you'll find the answer soon enough" He answered her, a warm smile on his face before following them through the door towards the small cell block the precinct had.

…

"Here you go, the veggie burger with fried carrots" Rose stated and placed a plate in front of Judy. "And the salad with the blueberry dressing" the deer continued as she served Nick his salad. They were sitting at their usual spot inside their favorite diner. They discovered it about three month ago, or more like Nick showed it to her three month ago, and since then they were coming here whenever they could. The food around here was cheap and tasty and it was located near the precinct so it was no wonder it was full in here all day, but somehow Rose managed to seat them at this exact place every time. Judy and Nick met her a month ago when she started working at this place and since then they became friends and she often used her breaks to join the two officers to talk with them. Today however she seemed quite busy as she dashed around the diner, serving almost every table at once.

"Poor Rose, they keep giving her more tasks to do" Judy sighed as she watched the deer running around. "Don't you think it's unfair to let her handle everything alone during these hours?"

"Well she looks like she got everything under control so why should we worry about her. Besides we have more important stuff to talk about don't you think?" Nick asked while he took his cutlery and began eating.

"Meaning?"

"I don't know, maybe the fact that a convicted criminal who tried to impersonate mr. Big without a good reason wanted to talk to us in person only to warn us about something." Nick continued while munching on his salad.

"I already told you that I don't believe him. Every second criminal uses an excuse like this and why wouldn't they? It's almost perfect, it's hard to proof and if it's true than they would get mitigating circumstances." Judy also began nibbling on a few carrots.

"I still want to talk with him once more. I want to ask him what he meant with _the real government_ and that we're in danger"

"Who is in danger?" a voice suddenly came from behind Judy. Before she could swallow the carrot in her mouth, Judy was pushed to the side as Rose sat down. Sometimes it truly was inconvenient to be that small Judy thought as she swallowed the carrot and opened her mouth to respond.

"No one, just some idiot we arrested. He said we would be in great danger or something like that" Nick replied before Judy had the chance to speak.

…

With a high _pling_ the elevator stopped and the doors opened. In front of him lied a huge hall filled with antique paintings on the walls, huge windows from which you could see the skyline of Zootopia far away and a red carpet on the floor. The only thing that had changed in the past twenty years was the guard standing in front of the door behind which his destination lied. Normally he would come here the long way from the city only once per week but today wasn't normal and he had important information for the boss. The guard was new and although the tiger probably had been informed about his arrival he could see the distrusting look the huge feline gave him. He could understand it though, even without the special … training … his boss gave his guards a mammal would be skeptical seeing a gun like the one attached to his belt. Not one of the tranquilizer toys the CPD gave its officers, no, this thing hanging from his waist was a real one.

A feeling of uneasiness crept up his spine as he walked over to the door and opened it. Almost twenty year had passed since this unfortunate event but he could still remember it as it had been yesterday. Back then a mammal suddenly interrupted one of their meetings and started screaming around. He hadn't been able to understand all of it back then, something of that guys wife being killed, but he would never forget the face of the fox as the guards dragged him away and he also would never forget the empty eyes of the fox as he had been found a few days later with a bullet in his head. It had been one of his first missions to observe the investigations and make sure the cops got the right killer, an enemy of his boss's organization. Since then he knew damn well to watch out what he was saying or doing when he was talking to the boss.

"Why are you here Kris?" the boss greeted him as he entered the room behind the a bit oversized oak wood door. _Straight to the point as always_ he thought, the boss never wasted time with empty phrases which was a trait he appreciated.

"Our mr. Big got arrested just now" he knew from the start that this idea wasn't going to work out. The old mole had his men almost everywhere and even if the instructions where that their impostor should keep it low he wondered that the mammal lasted a few days before getting caught be the real one.

He initially liked the idea to destabilize mr. Big's organization by creating an impostor and letting the police becoming aware of him but it wasn't hard to see the flaw of that plan. The network the mole had allowed him to know things sometimes even before they were happening so it was no wonder the man the boss deployed as the impostor got caught in his first few days even if Kris himself started to plan all the details months ago.

"That means everything is going exactly as planned, the only question is why are you here?" came the calm response from behind the also oversized heavy looking oak wood desk. Sometimes he couldn't get around the thought that the boss had to compensate something with all the furniture made for large mammals even if the boss himself was smaller than him.

"Exactly as planned? Our man got arrested for god's sake!" Sometimes the everlasting calmness of the boss really frustrated him.

"Oh come on Kris. Did you really think that this plan would work out just like that?" his voice was still calm as nothing happened.

"No but what where the point of executing the plan then?" He knew that this plan had flaws but why did the boss command him to execute it anyway if he knew it wouldn't work. If the boss knew that this wasn't going to work than why wanted he to send in one of their men only to get caught, or worse.

"You wanted to get rid of him"

The insight struck him like lightning. He didn't know why but if the boss really knew what he was doing then the only possible solution was that he _wanted_ to get this mammal caught.

"Took you longer than usual to get it" and in the boss's voice resonated a slightly amused tune for a change.

"But why?" He wanted to know.

"I don't know for sure but this fox could've been a spy, one of our men saw him snooping around and reported it to me a few months ago." The boss explained.

That made perfect sense. If the fox really had been a spy sent from the real government then the boss couldn't just have killed him of course. Their enemies would've known who did it and they would've taken a more … aggressive path instead of trying to infiltrate the boss's institution. Giving said fox a mission where he gets caught was brilliant, no one from them would even think about it and maybe they would try to get their man out of prison which in return would give the boss the chance to check out new possible targets.

After all this time the boss never ceased to amaze him although he was scared of the moment the boss would finally reach his goal whatever it was.

"Anything else, now that you're here?" the boss aroused him from his thoughts. "Otherwise, I still have other things to do than sitting here and being stared on by you".

For a moment he considered telling the boss about the two Officers who talked to their man just now, but after some time he decided against it. It wasn't worth to burden the boss with it who already had far too many things to do, he would just solve the problem himself.

…

"What do you mean he had been transported to prison?" Judy had troubles staying calm. They had been away for three hours, patrolling as the chief said and then eating in the diner and talking to Rose and now they stopped by at the precinct so Nick could talk to the fox ones more. As they came here however, the only one they talked to was an officer fresh from the academy explaining to them that two officers transported the fox to the Cliffside prison which lied outside the city two hours ago.

"As … As I said" stumbled the gazelle "there was an officer who took him with him. He had all the needed documents with them so I saw no problem. The only strange thing is the fact that you guys up there don't seem to have even the tiniest bit of organization. I mean I can somehow understand it if someone asks for an already transported mammal but two times within two hours?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"There already were two officers here an hour ago asking for the fox and I told them the exact same thing I'm telling you right now."

"But we are the officers in charge. According to the protocol we need to give our approval before someone can transport him, so why didn't we get informed?"

"B … But you signed the papers didn't you?" The gazelle asked, an uncomfortable look in her eyes. In silent Nick gave the young gazelle his compassion. He couldn't imagine anything worse than standing in front of an angry Judy and having to tell her that something didn't go as planned.

"We didn't sign anything" Judy slowly lost her patience.

"Of course you did, right here" the gazelle showed them a document. Judy took a close look at it but the only thing she recognized on the piece of paper was her own signature right beside Nick's. Instantly her anger was replaced by curiosity.

"Looks like one of your fans put your autograph to good use fluff" came a comment from beside her after Nick also saw Judy's signature on the document.

"Call the prison staff and tell them to bring him back right now" Judy commanded the gazelle who, with a nervous nod, instantly began tipping on her mobile. "In the meantime we'll figure out who messed up with this papers" She continued, now talking to Nick who gave her an agreeing nod.

 _Only two more days_ Judy thought as she turned around. Only two more days till this crazy week would be over and she could enjoy a peaceful weekend back at her family's place and she cheered inwardly as she imagined the smell of her mother's famous carrot soup.

"Excuse me, Officer Hopps!" the gazelle from right now waved them back.

"That was quick. So? When will he be here?" Judy turned back around and ran back the few meters they had been walking.

"It seems like there … occurred a … problem …" The female Officer uncomfortably rang for words.

"What problem?"

"It seems like neither the criminal nor the officer arrived at the prison"

* * *

 **There we go. Things are slowly starting to get finally interesting. I know the Story until now wasn't exactly the best or the most creative one so consider this a kind of a fresh start now. I really would appreciate some Feedback how you like it so don't hold back with Reviews or PMs.**


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